Scorpiak

“Scorpiacus, or an antidote to the sting of scorpions” is a small work (15 chapters), written by Tertullian in 213 and directed against the “scorpions of the Church,” i.e. Gnostics who want to poison believers with their poison, claiming that during persecution one can not only run away, but even outwardly renounce the faith, if only one remains a believer inwardly. The treatise is dedicated to the praise of martyrdom. Based on the Old and New Testaments, Tertullian argues that firmness in the profession of faith is the duty of Christians and that martyrdom has moral value and significance. “I affirm that martyrdom is good before God, who forbids and punishes idolatry” (chapter 5). *The title of the work in Latin is Scorpiace; Adversus gnosticos scorpiace. 1) The earth produces scorpions, terrible animals, in small quantities. There are as many kinds of them, there are as many poisons, there are as many breeds, there are as many dangers, there are as many colors, there are as many evils. Nikander described them and made drawings for them. But their common property is to sting with their tail. I call the tail the lower part of the body with which they inflict wounds. The nodes in the scorpion, armed with a small poisonous vein inside, stretch like a bow and shoot a curved arrow like a stone thrower. Hence the war machine, which throws arrows because it compresses them, received the name scorpion. This arrow, being both an arrow and a channel, is refined towards the end in order to hit more accurately, and pours its poison into the wound. Summer is the most dangerous time for this. The blowing of the southern and African wind promotes the animal's ferocity. Regarding medicines: Nature provides us with some of them, Magic uses enchanted belts, Medicine offers iron and drink; others drink water before cauterization, and thereby accelerate its beneficial effect. I don’t say anything about carnal copulation at this time: it depletes one’s strength and then produces an intolerable thirst. Let us provide the pagans with similar means. Our refuge is faith, unless someone, carried away by unbelief, along with the sign of the cross, dares to speak poison and crush an unclean animal. It often happened to us to provide services of this kind to unbelievers: heaven was pleased to send down to us this power, which the Apostle “Paul” was the first to consecrate, despising the remorse of the viper. – But since faith is already established on unshakable foundations: then what is the purpose of this article? The goal is to convert others to a firm faith when our own scorpions arm themselves against it: a tribe, although not numerous, but cruel, divided into many genera, endowed with the same sting, subject to the same enemy, always active in the hot season, that is, during the persecution of Christians. In those days when faith is exhausted, and the Church, like a burning bush, is surrounded by a devouring flame, in these days the Gnostics come out of their lairs, the Valentinians most hide their tortuous paths, all the denouncers of martyrdom exude their poison and are restless, having only one desire - to find a victim, to pierce and kill him. They know too well that Religion has in its ranks many simple and little-enlightened servants, others who are poorly established in the faith, and the majority of Christians who are frivolous, always disposed to turn in any direction they please. What more convenient time could one choose to capture these inexperienced or cowardly people in one’s nets than when fear rules the soul of everyone, or, especially, when barbaric executions crown the faith of the martyrs? Then, with their tail between their legs, they (the heretics) begin to excite human sensitivity, or simply fight like fish against ice. “How,” they exclaim, “is innocence subject to such torment, a sect about which no one has ever complained?” You will think that this is being said by a dear brother, or at least some compassionate pagan. But wait: they won’t even say: “to die, and for no reason at that!” And what could be the reason for the death of Christians? Then they begin to thrust their sting deeper: “these gullible souls do not know on what basis, in what sayings, where, when and before whom they should confess their faith.” Unhappy! It’s better to declare directly that dying for God is not only simplicity and uselessness, but complete madness. They continue: “Who will save me when the One who must save me sacrifices me? Jesus Christ, having died for us once, did not free us from destruction? Let us assume that He demands retribution; but does He really expect His own salvation from my death? Does God need my blood, a God who does not want the blood of goats or oxen? Did He not say that He prefers repentance to the death of the sinner? How will He justify such a saying when He desires the death of a sinner? These exclamations and many others similar to them, constantly coming from the evil lips of heretics, are not capable of producing, if not a loss of faith, then at least timidity in confessing it, if not complete death, then at least severe confusion? But you, reader, if your faith has not yet become weak, strike the blasphemous scorpion with a curse and make him die in his sleep. But beware. If he pours his poison into the wound, then the poison will not be slow to penetrate into the very inside and spread throughout the whole body. What will follow? All former noble feelings will become dull; the blood will freeze near the heart; the spirit will fade away under the burden of the flesh; a person will receive an aversion to the Christian name; the soul itself will begin to spew vomit. Thus, after his first remorse, our weakness will not fail to soon reject the faith, weakened by the infection of heresy or by secular delights. Now we are in the middle of summer, that is, the torches of persecution are ignited by the hands of Cynocephalus himself. Of the Christians, some were tortured, others were doomed to be burned, others died by the sword, others were torn to pieces by the teeth of wild beasts. Some, having been imprisoned and having suffered beatings and planings with iron pincers, long for the crown of martyrdom, the price of which they already know. Meanwhile, heresy never ceases to besiege us, timid hares destined for catching, from afar, marching along its usual path. Therefore, present circumstances should force us to oppose the scorpions of our region with a real medicine, which, however, we will soften as much as possible. Drink, dear reader: the drink is not bitter. If the Word of the Lord is sweeter than honey from the honeycomb, then know that the medicine I offer you is taken from there. If milk and honey flow from the promises of the Lord: then this milk and honey are martyrdom and retribution for it. Woe to those who turn bitter into sweet and sweet into bitter! Detractors of martyrdom! You, wanting the means of salvation to be a means of condemnation, turn sweet into bitter as light into darkness, and, preferring the misfortunes of the present life to the bliss of the future, you replace bitter with sweet as light with darkness. 2) But before we begin to talk about the glory of martyrdom, let us consider it as a duty or obligation before we are convinced that it is useful, we prove that it is necessary. Did God want there to be martyrdom? Did He command it? To resolve the issue, let us take divine authority as the basis, so that those who condemn martyrdom will not recognize its benefits until they are defeated. It is more decent to curb heresy with severity than with meekness: it is necessary to tame with an armed hand the anger that opposes convictions. There is no doubt that some kind of prejudice of goodness may be revealed in favor of such an institution, the founder of which is God Himself. Let our opponents wait a while for references to the Gospel texts. I intend first to explain the law which serves as their root; I want the will of God, so to speak, to flow in full force from those places where I find God Himself. “I am the Lord your God,” He says, “who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of work. May there be no blessings for you, except for Men. Thou shalt not make for yourself an idol or any likeness, such as the tree in heaven, and the tree below on earth, and the tree in the waters under the earth. Do not bow down to them, but serve them below: for I am the Lord your God.” Later in the same chapter it says: “You have seen words coming to you from heaven. You shall not make for yourselves silver gods, and you shall not make for yourselves gold gods” (Ex. 20:2–4, 22–23). In Deuteronomy the Lord says: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is one Lord: and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.” “Take heed to yourself, so that you do not forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of work. Fear the Lord your God, and serve Him alone, and cleave to Him, and swear by His name. Do not follow in the footsteps of other gods, the gods of the pagans, who are around you: for the Lord your God is a jealous God in your midst: let not the Lord your God be angry with you and consume you from the face of the earth.” Offering blessing and curse to His people, He says: “Blessing” (given to you), “If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, as I command you this day, and an oath, if you do not listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, as I command you this day, and turn away from the way of His commandments to you, going to serve another god, which you do not know.” They must be destroyed without mercy: “With destruction you will destroy all the places in which the pagans served their god, even as you received, on the high mountains and hills, and under the hay tree. And may you dig up their churches, and crush their pillars, and cut down their oak groves, burn the statues of their gods with fire, and destroy their name from that place.” As His people entered the Promised Land and consumed foreign nations, He renewed His warnings: “Take heed to yourself, lest you seek to follow them, after consuming them from your presence, do not seek their gods, saying: “As these nations do with their god, I will do also” (Deut. 6:4–5, 12–15. 9:27–28. 12:2–3, 30). The following command is remarkable: “If a prophet arises in you or sees a dream, and gives you a sign or a miracle, and a sign or a miracle comes, speaking to you, saying: Let us go, let us serve another god, but you do not know them. Do not listen to the words of that prophet, or the one who sees my dream: for the Lord your God is tempting you to lead you away, if you love your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Walk in the footsteps of the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and listen to His voice, and serve Him, and cleave to Him. And let the prophet or the one who sees the dream die: for the hedgehog will deceive you from the Lord your God.” A few lines later I read: “If your brother prays to you from your father or from your mother, or your son, or your daughter, or your wife, even in your bosom, or your friend who is equal to your soul, pray, saying: Let us go and serve another god, whom you and your fathers have not seen, from the gods of the languages who are around you, those who are near you, or those who are far from you, from the end of the earth: to the end of the earth: - yes do not deign to him, and do not listen to him, and do not let your eye spare him, and do not love him, cover him below: having proclaimed and made known about him, let your hand be on him first to kill him, and the hands of all people after, and stone him, and he will die, because he sought to turn you away from the Lord your God.” A description of the fate of cities follows if, according to strict research, it turns out that: “Let this abomination be created in you. Killing and killing all who live in that city with the sword, curse it with a curse, all that is in it, and set the city on fire and all its gain publicly before the Lord your God; and it will be empty forever, there will be no reward, and let nothing from the curse cleave to your hand, so that God may turn away from the fury of His anger.” His hatred of idols inspired Him to utter many curses for polytheism and violation of His commandments: “Cursed is the man who makes a graven image and a fusion, an abomination of the Lord, the work of an artist, and places it in secret. Cursed is every man who does not abide in all the words of the law” (Deut. 13:1–5, 6–10, 14–17, 27 and 26). The book of Leviticus confirms the same thing: “Do not follow an idol, and do not create for yourselves fused gods: I am the Lord your God. - The sons of Israel are my servants, these are my sons, they are the ones I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. - You shall not make for yourselves images made with hands, lower than those carved, you will place them lower than a pillar, you will place them lower than a stone in your land as a sign, to worship him: I am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:4. 25:55. 26:1). These are the first laws spoken by God through the mouth of Moses. They refer not only to the ancient Jews, but also to those people whom the God of Israel brought out of the Egypt of this world, flooded with superstitions, and brought them out of the house of human slavery. Subsequently, the Prophets did not cease to repeat with one voice the words of the same God, who confirmed and sanctified His first law by the continuous recollection of the same instructions. Nothing was clearer than the prohibition on which He insisted most of all: “Do not make yourself an idol, bow down to it.” The psalmist also testified: “Idols of the tongue,” he says, “silver and gold, the work of men’s hands: they have eyes, and will not see; They have ears and will not hear; they have nostrils and do not smell; They have hands and do not feel them; they will have it, and will not go; they will not cry out with their throats. Let those who do this, and all who trust in her, be like them” (Ps. 113:12–16). 3) Should the Supreme God endure having His name and honor disgraced by lies? Can He not forbid the people, freed by Him from the yoke of superstition, to shamefully return again to the slavery of Egypt? On the other hand, does He have the right to demand that the children He has adopted withdraw from serving Him? These questions are not subject to research. No one should require us to explain whether God wants the law He made to be observed, and whether He takes revenge for neglect of such a law, the fulfillment of which He has expressed His will. What would be the point of a law if God did not demand that people obey Him! It would be in vain for He to insist if He did not want to punish the violators. “It remains for me to prove that the previous laws related precisely to those superstitions that God destroyed or for which He punished. The question of martyrdom will then acquire all its credibility. Moses was on the mountain with God when the people, unable to bear his long absence, which was so necessary for him, demanded that gods be sculptured for him, whom he should quickly turn to dust. The people have repeatedly insisted on this. Aaron commanded the Israelites to melt in the fire the gold jewelry that was hanging in their wives' ears. This is how they exchanged the word of God, which is the best decoration for human ears, for a death sentence. The submissive fire turned the metal into a crazy animal, as if in an obvious reproach to the Israelites: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be,” that is, they had it in Egypt, which, among other superstitions, idolized the ox Apis. Three thousand people were killed for this by their relatives and neighbors, because they were the first to take part in the indignation and offended God, who was more than a father to them, more than their neighbors; and therefore they were the first to be executed. In the book of Numbers it is mentioned that “The Israelites, living in Sattim, became defiled by fornication with the daughters of Moab, and I called upon the idol of my own: and I ate the people's demands, and bowed down to their idol, and Israel communed with Beelphegor” (Num. 25:1–3). For this second idolatry, defiled by fornication, twenty-four thousand died as victims of God's justice. After the death of Joshua, the Israelites “left the Lord their God and served Baal and Ashtoreth. And the Lord was angry with Israel, and delivered them into the hands of their enemies. And I was unable to resist in the face of my enemies. And the hand of the Lord was upon them in an evil way, and made them bitter. And the Lord raise up judges for them. But she did not listen to the judges either, and when the judge died, she turned away and became more corrupt than her father, following in the footsteps of other gods, to serve them and worship them. And the Lord was angry with Israel, and said: “Even though my generation has forsaken this covenant, the commandments of their fathers, and have not listened to my voice, and I will not drive out a man from before them from these tongues, but Joshua the Son of Nun left them on the earth and died” (Book of Judges 2:12–16, 19–21). From the book of Judges and from the books of kingdoms it is clear that God often made Israel feel His wrath through these neighboring nations, keeping them, so to speak, in reserve, as well as through bloody wars, taking people into captivity and keeping them in bonds, every time Israel moved away from God, especially when it fell into idolatry. 4) If it is known that idolatry from the very beginning was prohibited by laws, constantly repeated and accompanied by threats, if numerous and terrible examples prove that it never went unpunished, and that before God there is no crime so daring as this deviation from the law: then we ourselves must conclude that the purpose of God's threats and vengeance for him is sufficient authority in favor of martyrdom, and that it is necessary not only to accept without fear, but also to endure it courageously. To prohibit idolatry was to open the door to the confession of the sacred name of God; without which, what would happen to this generous devotion and self-sacrifice? Divine authority prepared in advance what was to be fulfilled. Thus, if we are now subjected to torture, then it is none other than God who brought us to this position. Scorpio infects the wound with poison, denying His will and blaspheming against it, with the intention of either introducing another god with a different will, or taking away confidence in the will of our God, or at least contradicting His holy will, without being able to reject it. We have already protected the existence of our God in other places by fighting each heresy separately. Now, limiting ourselves to one article, we make it a rule that the will of the God of Israel, this one God, opens the gate to martyrdom; Moreover, it either eliminates heresy or executes it when it arises. If, finally, I need to endure something to fulfill this rule: then one of the conditions for observing it should be that I am obliged to endure everything related to the violation of the rule. What is this? That I must be subject to all sorts of insults awaiting me, as soon as I guard against heresy. Whoever imposes rule on me, He, without a doubt, imposes obedience on Himself. He who demands obedience will give both means and methods. My Supreme Lawgiver says to me: “Let there be no gods for you, except Men.” Do not create for yourself another God, either by word or deed. Do not worship anyone except the One who commands you to do so, whatever the type of worship. He still commands me to fear Him, so that He does not leave me, and to love Him with all the strength of my being, even sacrificing my life for Him. I took an oath to die under His banner. His enemies challenge me to battle. To agree with them means to be like them. No! I will keep the faith on the battlefield. What a need, will I be wounded, pierced, killed! Who can condemn his defender to death if not the One who predestined him for such heroic self-sacrifice? 5) You now know the will of my God. We repelled the attacks against her. To strengthen our arguments, let us also consider the quality of this will. It would be unnecessary to dwell on the fact that my God is good: we have already proven this in the article against “Marcion”. However, it is enough to name God in order to undoubtedly believe that He is good. Believing God to be evil, you must choose one of two things: either reject the being of an evil God or attribute goodness to the One to whom you assign deity. In any case, the will of God will turn out to be good, who cannot be God otherwise than by being good. The goodness of the law established by the will of God serves as new proof of this: we are talking about martyrdom. A good thing cannot flow from anyone other than a good being. I affirm that martyrdom is good before God, who forbids and punishes idolatry. The opponent of idolatry is a martyr. And who can resist evil if not good? Others will think that we want to reject the mutual opposition of good and evil. Not at all. But martyrdom is of a different kind: it fights idolatry not with tears, but with supernatural and special grace, and frees us from idolatry. Who would not dare to recognize as good that which delivers us from evil? What does aversion to idolatry and martyrdom mean if not hatred of death and life? Life is in martyrdom, as death is in idolatry. You call life evil; therefore, you must call death a good thing. But what are the vicissitudes of the thoughts of the majority of people? They reject what saves; accept what destroys; They are clearly exposed to danger, they deprive themselves of medicine with cruel stubbornness, they find it more bearable to die than to try to be cured. Look what actually happens to many: they withdraw from help that could bring them life, some out of madness, others out of timidity, some out of false shame. Human medicine also has its troubles: cutting, cauterizing, applying plasters, but I will not call either one, or the other, or the third evil, because the pain they produce benefits me. Not only will I not reject these operations because they torture me, but I will pursue them precisely because they torture me. The benefits of the operation soften its severity. The patient screams, spins, and sighs under the hands of the physician. All this is true, but he will fill with gifts the very hands about which he had just complained. Yesterday they were cruel, but today they are skillful and beneficent. The same thing happens with martyrdom. If it seems formidable, it is only to save. Is it really not permissible for God to cure for eternity each of our diseases with fire and sword? Marvel at the wisdom of the physician here too. He counters the ferocity of the disease with medicines consistent with its properties, when, following a method that seems disgusting, he alleviates our suffering through our own suffering. Indeed, it stops inflammation through severe inflammation, extinguishes the heat of fever by exciting thirst, reduces the spread of bile with bitter drinks, and by cutting the veins it stops the flowing blood. And you, you dream of blaming God, and, moreover, a jealous God, when He wants to enter into the fight against the evil principle, that is, with idolatry, wants to come to our aid, repay insult for insult, trample death with death, repel slaughter with slaughter, eliminate torment with torment, destroy executions with executions, bring life by causing death, lighten the flesh, seemingly hurting it, save life, as if desiring it vomit? What you call disorder is the dispensation of divine wisdom. The severity that you denigrate is true grace. God rewards momentary trials with eternity. Give glory to God, who shows severity solely for your good. Luckily for you, you have fallen into His hands: He can examine your illnesses. The disease always precedes the doctor. The man exposed himself to death. He had from the Lord, as from a merciful physician, a useful warning to live according to the law, that is, to eat from all the fruits, excluding the fruits of the tree indicated to him. Pesky prohibition! The legislator knew this well. The man, blindly submitting to the suggestions of the one he preferred, violated the rule of abstinence and brought the forbidden fruit to his lips. Fed up with disobedience, he, so to speak, became ripe for death, and thus deserved complete death, having wished it himself. But the Lord, having allowed the first fermentation of sin to fall and its action to be processed over time, little by little composed medicines against it, which are nothing more than dogmas of faith, as the science of fighting vice, cutting off the word of death through the word of life, and exterminating the feeling of disobedience with a feeling of obedience. You yourself now see that when this supreme Physician commands death, he only does what drives away the whiteness of death. O man! Why do you now refuse to be healed by death, when before you were not afraid to destroy yourself with it? Why don’t you want to sacrifice yourself as a saving sacrifice when you wanted to fall into the abyss that leads to insignificance? How can one neglect the antidote to such an extent and hunger for poison? 6) If it is true that God offers us martyrdom as a test, so that a person with this weapon would defeat the ancient enemy and triumph over the one to whom he once so easily lost victory over himself: then the bounty of the omnipotent God in this case did not fail to reveal itself even more than His severity before. It was not enough for Him to snatch a person by faith from the clutches of Satan. He wanted man to solemnly trample Satan underfoot on the other end, so that the victim would not only be freed from the enemy, but would also overthrow the conqueror. He who called us to salvation considers it His pleasure to call us to glory. To the joy of freedom He added the joy of acquiring a crown. See with what zeal our cities celebrate battles and ceremonial battles, which were invented long ago by Greek superstition, supported by a passion for pleasure. Africa can serve as a witness to this. All the surrounding villages are still deafening with their applause Carthage, which was once honored with Pythic games in its ancient field. Thus, at all times, people believed that in order to excite competition, give strength to the body and raise the voice, it is appropriate to offer athletes a reward, appoint spectators as judges for them, and present pleasure as a bait. At this price all exhaustion, all ulcers are redeemed. People allow themselves to be beaten, twisted, tormented, torn into pieces, stained with blood. Is there even one person who would think of reproaching judges for allowing people to inflict such violence on each other? Outside the field, they can demand satisfaction for an insult; but here the blows and ulcers disappear under the dazzling charm of wreaths and applause, awards and public honors, images and statues, the hope of surviving oneself in the memory of people and the dreamy immortality of one’s name. Have you ever heard an athlete complain about his injuries? Never true, because he himself is looking for them. The wreath hides his wounds, the palm tree tames his blood: he is more proud of his victory than of the wounds inflicted on his body. Tell me: will you really consider such a joyful fighter insulted by this? But what am I saying? Does the mutilated man himself reproach the judge presiding over the games for his misfortune? - Is it really not proper for God to offer His battles, His games; to open this arena for us, where He exposes us to disgrace to people, Angels and all heavenly powers; to test who has what strength of soul and flesh; assign a palm to one, honor and glory to another, the right of citizenship to another, and other rewards to another; others to be condemned, and those whom He punished to be rejected with dishonor? Would you still think of assigning to God a time, a manner of action, and a place where He should judge His family, as if wisdom and foresight were not among the attributes of a judge? But what can we say if God offers us martyrdom not for struggle, but for success in our faith? Shouldn't faith have before its eyes, as it were, hope from above, through which it could gather its strength, limit its desires and constantly ascend upward, just as earthly powers try to rise from degree to degree? On the other hand, how could there be “many abodes” for families “in the Father’s house” if differences in merit were not acceptable in respect? How, also, could “star stand out from star in glory” if the rays were not of different kinds? If faith was to march from height to height, from glory to glory, then its victories had to be redeemed at the labor price of exhaustion, suffering, torment and death itself. But also consider what the reward is. Sacrificing everything that is most dear to us, body and soul, of which the first is the work of God’s hands, the second is the inspiration of the Creator, a person puts only his capital in the cash register in order to receive interest on interest, spends in order to acquire more and more: what is the price, such is the reward. God foresaw in advance that amid the trials of human frailty, the attacks of the enemy, the snares of the world and temptations of all kinds, faith, emerging from the font of regeneration, would be subject to the greatest dangers. How many unfortunate people could have died if they had already received salvation! How many guests in desecrated vestments could come to the wedding feast! How many careless people might forget to light their lamps! How many lost sheep would have to be found through the valleys, mountains and wilds, and brought back on the ramen! For this reason, God brought closer to us, as the ultimate hope and last refuge, the struggle of martyrdom, prepared for us a bloody bath, ensured from the side of safety, a bath, the bliss of which the Psalmist sings like this: “Blessed are their iniquities left behind, and theirs covered with sin. Blessed is the man; the Lord will not impute sin to him” (Ps. 32:1-2). Indeed, what can one blame the martyrs for who laid down their very lives in this cleansing bath? To cover up a multitude of sins, their soul, loving God with all its strength, which it uses in the struggle of martyrdom, gives itself up voluntarily for God: love is precisely what constitutes martyrdom. Medicines, advice, courts, spectacles: does all this really seem to you now as the cruelty of my Creator? - Is God really hungry for human blood? - Hungry, I can answer with confidence, if a person is hungry for the kingdom of God, if a person is hungry for salvation, not subject to any danger, if a person is hungry for a second rebirth. You cannot envy anyone in retribution, where the measure of reward and punishment is the same for everyone. 7) Let the scorpion of heresy still try to throw its arrows, let it still cry out that God is a murderer. I will reflect with horror the poisonous breath of the sectarian’s blasphemy, but, nevertheless, based on the testimony of even reason itself, I will not renounce God, who, under the name of wisdom through the mouth of “Solomon,” declared Himself more than, as it were, a murderer: “wisdom was slaughtered,” He says, “his own sacrificial” (his children) (Prov. Sol. 9:2). O slaughter, full of wisdom, giving birth to her children for life; a slaughter filled with intelligence, leading them into the possession of glory! Oh, lovely infanticide, an imaginary crime committed with unheard-of skill! Oh, holy cruelty, slaughtering so that the victim never dies! What follows after this? “Wisdom is sung in the outcome.” And in fact, aren’t hymns sung outside (“in the outcome”) in honor of the martyrs? Wisdom leads boldness in hundredfold; for he slaughters his children solely for their happiness. “It is preached on the edges of the walls” (Ibid. 1:20–21), one day, at a time when, in the words of Isaiah, she cries out: “I am the Lord’s, I am Jacob’s, I am Israel’s.” O good mother! How I would like to be considered among her children, to be slain by her! Why can’t I be slain to become her child! But is she content with one slaughter, does she not also demand the torment of her children? I hear God say somewhere: “I will refine them like silver, and test them like gold”: he will cleanse them and test them, without a doubt, in the crucible of executions and the torments of martyrdom, which are like the touchstone of faith. The Apostle also did not know what kind of God he was preaching about when he said: “Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, lest He also with Him freely give us all things” (Rom. 8:32). You see for yourself: divine wisdom slain her own Son, her firstborn, only Son, so that He might live, or better said, in order to bring all men to life. And since Wisdom is Christ himself, who gave Himself for our sins, then I can directly say that Wisdom sacrificed itself. Words contain two things: sound and meaning: it is not enough for the bodily ear to hear them; it is necessary for their spiritual ear to penetrate. Those who do not understand the actions of God cry out against cruelty. But we can choose not to understand them, but the sacred texts do their job and stop the insolence of judgments. “Who understood the mind of the Lord, or who was His counselor, or who first gave Him” (Rom. 11:34), who opened the way of understanding to Him? Meanwhile, the world, in order to tame the anger of its gods, has long brought human sacrifices to them, such as the Scythians to Diana, the Gauls to Mercury, the Africans to Saturn. Even in our time, Latium (Rome) sprinkles all the squares of the city with human blood in honor of its Jupiter. Is anyone complaining about this? Does not the whole assembly say that something secret is hidden here, or that the will of the gods is incomprehensible? If our God demanded martyrdom and offerings for Himself, then who would blame Him for a disastrous Religion, for deplorable rituals, for altars turned into bonfires, and for a multitude of priests surrounded by corpses? Wouldn’t everyone, on the contrary, consider themselves lucky that they themselves can serve God as food? 8) I dwell on one subject, and limit myself only to finding out whether martyrdom is prescribed by God, so that you can be confident in the wisdom of the prescription if you recognize that it really is a commandment of God; for God commands nothing without wisdom. “The death of His saints is honorable before God” (Ps. 115:6). Thus sang the Psalmist. I don’t think that he meant here ordinary death, a common tribute to which we are all subject, and even less a shameful death, branded with wickedness and righteous condemnation, but surely death, neglected for the sake of witnessing Religion, a glorious struggle, where the martyr sacrifices himself in order to remain faithful to the truth and his oath, such a struggle as “Isaiah” described: “you see how the righteous perish, and no one accepts heart; righteous men will land, and no one understands; from the face of unrighteousness the righteous has come forth; His burial will be in peace” (Isa. 57:1–2). It all lies here: both the announcement of the martyrs and their reward. From the very beginning, truth has always been subject to violence. As soon as people began to honor God, Religion became an object of envy. Whoever was pleasing to God was killed, and killed by his brother. Impiety, hastening to murder, first shed its own blood. The righteous perished: why should not the Prophets perish? "David" flees. “Elijah” saves his life only because he hid. "Jeremiah" is stoned. "Isaiah" was sawn through with a saw. "Zechariah" was killed between the porch and the altar, leaving on the stone an indelible sign of the blood he shed. The Forerunner himself, who concluded the law and the Prophets, a man who was greater than the Prophet, called an Angel, was shamefully beheaded as a reward for shamelessness. At all times, people, inspired by the Spirit of God, willingly allowed Him to lead them to torture in order to justify their teaching by His example. When the whole city (Babylon) hurried out of blind obedience to bow to the idol of its king, the three captive youths of Israel did not forget what faith demanded of them, knowing how to be free in the very chains, knowing how to fight idolatry. They remembered what “Jeremiah” wrote about this captivity: “Now you will see in Babylon gods of silver and gold and stone and wood carried on shoulder straps, showing fear with their tongues. Be careful, lest you become like a foreigner, and fear will take you from them, having seen the people in front and behind bowing to them. Chant in your mind: it is fitting for you to bow down to the Master” (Jeremiah 4-5). Therefore, the youths, having courageously repelled the king’s threats, answered him with the confidence instilled in them by God: “You don’t need us to answer you about this verb. For there is our God in heaven, and we serve Him, who is able to take us out of the burning fire, and to deliver us from your hand, O king. Otherwise, let it be known to you that we do not serve your gods, and we do not bow down to the golden body that you have set up” (Dan. 3:16-18). О венец мученичества, хотя и не кровавого! Они довольно страдали, довольно сгорали от огня. God, to testify that their trust was not in vain, honored them with His cover. Посмотрите также и на Даниила . Он поклонялся только истинному Богу. Халдеи негодуют, клевещут на него, и предают его в снедь хищным зверям. The ferocious lions to whom the captive was brought down would, of course, not have spared him if Darius’s lofty feelings about the deity had not been justified. However, every Prophet, every servant of God, forced into idolatry and disobedient, must certainly pass through the crucible of tribulations. Didn’t justice itself demand that these magnanimous men, in order to further assure their contemporaries or descendants of the truth they preached, seal it with their blood and death? Да и кто согласился бы умереть, если бы не был уверен, что умирает за истину? Thus, there should be no doubt at all: prescriptions, examples, antiquity - everything proves that martyrdom is a duty and a pledge of faith. 9) In order to deprive antiquity of its mysterious meaning, all that remains is to declare that Christianity is a new thing, introduced by an alien God, having no connection with the first law; such news where Wisdom does not know how to slaughter her children. “Divinity,” say the heretics, “has a completely different property in Christ: His will and teaching are also different. He does not have martyrdom, or He wanted it to be understood differently. This is so true that He never admonished His listeners to neglect this danger. He does not promise retribution for this suffering, because he does not want this suffering either.” For this reason, apparently, Christ began His preaching, among other things, with the following saying: “It is the blessing of the expulsion of righteousness for the sake of them, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” These words, without a doubt, apply to all people in general. Then, turning as if especially to His Apostles, He says: “Blessed are you when people revile you and destroy you, and say all kinds of evil things against you who lie, for my sake. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven: for you have driven out the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:10–12). Didn't this mean predicting to them that they would be slain according to the example of the Prophets? Let us assume, however, that this conditional persecution concerned only the Apostles. But when the Apostles gave us a full confession of faith, when they spread the Christian name, communicated the gifts of the Holy Spirit, when they are hereditary disciples and constitute direct branches of the Apostolic seed: then we are bound by the same law by which the Apostles were bound. They were martyrs: we should be martyrs too. Jesus Christ in another place said to them: “Behold, I send you like sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore, be wise as a serpent, and purposeful as a dove. Take heed from man; You will be betrayed to the hosts, and you will be beaten in their assemblies. And before the rulers and kings you will be known for My sake, as a testimony to them and with your tongue.” When He adds: “brother will betray brother to death, and father will betray child, and the children will rise up against their parents and kill them”: it is clear that He appointed other people, and not the Apostles, to experience this wickedness, to which the Apostles were not subjected. Not one of them was betrayed by either father or son, as happens to us. Jesus Christ then turns again to the Apostles: “and you will be hated by everyone for My name’s sake,” and we will be hated even more, having to be betrayed by our relatives. Thus, mixing the decrees that applied either to the Apostles, or to each of the believers, He, for all those in whom His name abides, as in the sanctuary, established the universal law to confess His name even to death: “he who endures to the end will be saved.” endure; but what kind of suffering? Persecution, betrayal, slaughter. To endure means to endure to the end. Then He immediately adds: “a student is above his teacher, a slave is below his master.” The reason for this is clear. When the Teacher and Lord was subjected to persecution, betrayal, and slaughter; then, all the more, ministers and disciples should experience the same fate, so that they are not considered to be of any higher nature if they are freed from the sorrow of wickedness, and especially when it is enough for their glory that they will be dealt with as with their Teacher and Lord, who encourages them to be patient with the following words: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; Fear rather than the mighty, destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” Who are those who can kill only the body, if not the above-mentioned lords and kings? These are probably people. But who is the supreme ruler of the soul if not God? Who can threaten us with the vengeful fire of Gehenna, if not God, “without whose will not one of these” (birds) “will fall to the earth,” that is, not one of the essences of man, neither body nor soul? “For you and all the main things, read all the essence: do not be afraid,” because He adds to this: “you are better than many birds.” This means promising us that we will not “fall to the ground” in vain and not without benefit when we desire to be slain better by people than by God. “Whoever confesses Me before men, I will confess him and I before My Father who is in heaven. And whoever denies Me before men, I will deny him and I before My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 10:16–18, 21, 22, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33). Here, at least, everything seems clear in relation to both the definition of confession of faith and renunciation of it. A person devoted to Christianity recognizes himself as a disciple of Christ. Whoever belongs to Jesus Christ abides in Him. Christ is in him, and he is in Christ. Consequently, whoever confesses or denies that he is a Christian already confesses or denies Christ Himself, who exists in him. After this, in vain you will begin to say: “although I have denied that I am a Christian, I will not be rejected by Christ, because I personally have not rejected Him.” To reject your faith, however, will be wicked; for by renouncing to be a Christian, that is, by renouncing Christ who exists in you, you actually renounce Him. But this is still not enough. He pays contempt for contempt. “If,” He says, “he is ashamed of Me before men, I will also be ashamed of him before My Father who is in heaven.” Apostasy is the child of shame. The face or forehead is, as it were, the sanctuary of the soul. Reverence for God dies within before the outward appearance weakens. 10) But to think with some people that it is not here, that is, not within the confines of this world, not during this life, not in the face of people of all kinds, that we must confess faith: to think so means to censure the divine economy of all the things that we must experience during our here life and under the power of the authorities of this world. What's good? Souls, perhaps, having left the body and gone through all the heavenly ordeals, having undergone an examination of the quality of their merits in order to find out in which abodes they should live, and having been asked about the mysterious medicines of heresy, they must, perhaps, testify to their faith before some higher powers, in the face of true people, perhaps before the Valentinian Teletes, Akinetes and Abaskants 1. As for the people among whom we live, the heretics add: our Demiurge himself considers them not worthy of this name. What are they in his eyes? A drop of water falling into a vessel, dust carried by the wind, is nothing more than humiliation and insignificance. He sometimes likens them to animals devoid of reason.” I agree that this is how St. speaks about people in other places. Scripture; but does this give you any reason to conclude that there are other people besides us? We exist. Therefore, Scripture could compare us with what it considered decent, respecting, however, the property and unity of our race. From the fact that our life has become depraved, from the fact that, being recognized as worthy of contempt, it is compared with despicable things, it does not follow that our nature has changed so much that it deserves to receive a different name. I'll say even more. A person retains the integrity of his nature even at a time when his disorder is condemned; and Christ does not know other people except those about whom he says: “Whom men say I am, the Son of man” (Matthew 14:13)? “Whatsoever ye will, let men do unto you, and ye do likewise unto them” (Luke 6:31). Answer! Did Christ preserve the nature of those whose testimony he demanded and on whom he pronounced a just sentence? If I ask the heresy where its supposed heavenly people are: then it is easier for Aratus (Greek poet) to show me Perseus, Cepheus, Erigone and Ariadne, transformed into constellations. Who would have prevented the Lord from forewarning me purely and clearly that people should confess their faith only where He clearly intended for His own future confession and glorification to be, if it were His will? Why didn’t He say directly: whoever confesses Me before men in heaven, him I will also confess before My Father in heaven? If He wanted to talk about confession in the face of heaven, then he would inevitably have to remove from me all bewilderment about confession on earth, which supposedly was not pleasing to Him; for I do not know other people except the inhabitants of the earth, and moreover, no one has ever seen a man in heaven. However, how can I believe that, having risen upward from this life, I will be tested there, where I cannot be allowed to be without having been tested, and that for the second time I will be interrogated and tortured there, where I cannot enter except as the chosen one? Heaven is open to the Christian before he sets out on the path to heaven, because this path is accessible only to those for whom heaven is open. To reach it means to enter into it. “You object: am I not thinking, in accordance with Roman superstition, to establish Janus, Forculi, Lamentinus, and introduce other funny ghosts to guard the doors of heaven?” If you have ever read from “David” the king: “be lifted up” (open) “the eternal gates”, “and the king of glory will come in” (Ps. 23:9); If you have ever heard the Prophet “Amos” exclaim: “When He makes His sunrise into heaven, call for the water of the sea and pour it out on the face of the earth: The Lord God is His name” (Am. 9:6): then know that this sunrise has already been paved for us by the feet of Our Lord, and that the door has been opened to us by the triumph of Christ. There are no more tests to undergo. It is no longer a matter of trial, but of confession, not of interrogation, but of acceptance. “But the sky,” you say, “is still closed.” Remember that the Lord here also handed over the keys to heaven to the Apostle “Peter”, and in his person the Church. Whoever is questioned on earth and confesses his faith will receive them. Satan claims that our confession will take place in heaven in order to convince us to renounce our faith here. Truly very useful instruction for my judge! These will be excellent keys, which I will bring with me, appearing to God with fear and fear from those people who “kill the body, but cannot kill the soul”! A wonderful encouragement to break the rule of faith! I will resist gloriously in heaven, after I could not resist on earth; I can easily endure the menacing gaze of the powers above, after I have trembled from the gaze of the powers below; finally, I will certainly be accepted, after having already been excluded. It remains for you to say decisively that everyone here must be an apostate, because the confession of faith awaits us in heaven. Where one of two things is found, the whole is found. All opposites go the same way. From this it follows that persecution must also exist in heaven, because persecution is an inevitable element of any confession, as well as of any opposition. O you, most daring of heretics! Why are you still hesitating? Why don’t you transfer the persecution of Christians to heaven? Why don’t you place the hatred that haunts us at the throne where Christ sits at the right hand of His Father? It would be best to establish a Jewish synagogue there in heaven, which attempted to be the first to declare war on the Apostles and scourge them; Bring there also the nations crying in their amphitheater: How long will this third generation last? We need to have more brothers, fathers, sons, mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law and even ministers who would betray us, as the Prophets predicted. Is everyone here? May there yet appear kings, rulers, armed forces, before whom we will defend our cause. Moreover, build a dark prison in the sky, into which the sun’s rays would not penetrate, and even if they did penetrate, they would not illuminate it. Turn the earth's belts into fetters and the axis of the world into a machine. Should a Christian be stoned? The city awaits only your commands. Burn it? Thunder in your hands. Mortgage? Orion is already stretching out his formidable muscles. Consigned to be eaten by wild beasts? The North brings down its two Ursa, the zodiac of its Ox and Leo. “He who endures to the end will be saved.” Thus, the end, the slaughter, the passion, the confession of faith: all this will take place in heaven. Where will the flesh be, the presence of which is necessary for such diverse feats? Where will there be a body that alone can be killed by human hands? This should be the conclusion of a sound mind, even if it amuses itself with irony; for to desire persecution means the same as uniting with him all his inevitable retinue, so that martyrdom could serve as a testimony of faith. Indeed, confession stems from persecution, and persecution occurs through confession. Here on earth hatred is armed against the name of the Christian, here on earth persecution is frenzied, here on earth treason betrays us, interrogations force us to blaspheme, executioners are rampant. Each of these acts refers to both confession and apostasy. If everything else happens here on earth, then there is no confession anywhere else. If confession happens in another place, what does everything else do here on earth? But nothing like this can happen in heaven. Therefore there is no confession in heaven. If heresy dreams that in heaven interrogations and confessions take place differently than on earth, then it must define various methods for this, which would have nothing in common with the exploits outlined in St. Scripture. We, for our part, could tell her the following on this score: this is exactly your business, if only the interrogations and confessions here on earth, arising from the elements of persecution, retain the exact quality of their names, so that one can believe as it is written and understand as it is said. As for me, I protect this entire economy with the authority of the Lord himself, who did not assign any other place for the said confession other than the earth. Having explained what relates to confession and apostasy, why then He said: “Do not remember that He came to bring peace to the earth; He did not come to bring peace, but a sword. I have come to separate a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law; and defeat the man of his own household” (Matthew 10:34–36)? Then it can really happen that “the brother will betray the brother to death and the father will betray the child, and the children will rise up against their parents and kill them; but he who endures to the end will be saved” (Ibid. 10:21–22). This is so true that this sword of the Lord, sent to earth and not to heaven, defines the earth as the place of asceticism for confession, which, having endured to the end, must undergo death. 11) We will prove in the same way that everything else is also adapted to martyrdom. “Whoever loves his life more than Me is not worthy of Me,” that is, that Christian is unworthy who would rather live having rejected Me than die having confessed Me. “He who has found his soul will destroy it; and whoever loses his soul for My sake will find it.” Therefore, a Christian can save his life when he tries to redeem it by apostasy; but he will destroy in hell this life, which he thought to gain by apostasy. A martyr who dies in the profession of faith, losing his temporary life, will gain eternal life. Judges and Hegemons, in order to force us to commit oaths, tell us: save your life, do not destroy yourself. But the words of Christ cannot be anything other than consistent with the fate of a Christian. “Whenever you are betrayed, you will be in the knowledge of rulers and kings; do not worry about how or what you say.” Here Jesus Christ gives instructions to His servants, and notifies them that the Holy Spirit will answer through their lips. Does He tell us to visit our brother in prison? This brother, whom He orders to take care of, is the confessor. Does He affirm that God will avenge His elect? This refers to revenge for the suffering of the martyr, whom He consoled. What does the parable of the seed drying up in the barren land mean, if not the cruelty of persecution? If of all that is predicated in parables, nothing should be taken in the natural sense: then the words contained in them undoubtedly hide some kind of mystery, and contain one thing, while their meaning refers to another thing, just as happens in an allegory, in a parable or in fortune telling. Whatever vain speculations our Scorpios may boast, whatever the arrows with which they produce wounds, I wish that only one proof be provided to me. We refer to the incidents themselves. Do they literally agree with scripture? Scripture, of course, wanted to mean a completely different thing when these incidents are not in it. What is written must inevitably happen. Therefore, what is written will happen unless something else happens in the meantime. But behold, all men hated us because of our name, as it is written; our neighbors betray us, as it is written; we are taken to trial before the authorities, interrogated, tortured and killed, as it is written. The Lord announced it in exactly the same way. If He had announced differently, not in the same sense: then why are the events not fulfilled differently, that is, are they not fulfilled in the way that, according to the heretics, He announced? But no! They are fulfilled exactly as He declared; and He declared the way they are being fulfilled; for they could not have been fulfilled otherwise than as He declared, and He Himself would not have declared them otherwise than as He wanted them to be fulfilled. Thus, St. Scripture only signifies what the incidents say. If the predicted events are not fulfilled, then how will the events not predicted be fulfilled? The actual events would not have been predicted if the prediction and the events were in conflict. But now that incidents agree with words and words with incidents, the heretics want to assure us that the words have a completely different meaning. What would have happened if events had taken a different direction? To reject events and accept fortune-telling would be to subvert faith. To such a pitiful confusion of concepts, I respond that if the events that are fulfilled according to how it is written are not the same as those announced by the prediction, then it is necessary to exclude those events that should not be fulfilled according to how it is written, so that they do not suffer the same fate as the first. When events and words are in conflict, then events may seem not to have been predicted if they were predicted differently than how they should be fulfilled. How not to give up faith in predictions exposed as lies by events? Therefore, heretics who believe in predictions that are not justified by events believe in what is not predicted. 12) Then, whoever is better able to understand the inner meaning of St. The Scriptures, if not the school of Jesus Christ Himself, if not the disciples chosen by the Lord to teach us all kinds of knowledge, the disciples whom He appointed as our teachers and mentors in everything? To whom could He more conveniently reveal the true meaning of His words than to those who were witnesses of His glory during the transfiguration, that is, to “Peter”, “John”, “James”, and then to “Paul”, whom He raptured to the third heaven before His martyrdom? Could these divine men write anything differently than how they felt, write one thing and think another, could they be Apostles of lies and not truth? The Apostle “Peter” speaks to the chosen strangers of Pontus like this: “What praise is there if you endure the torments of your sins? But if you do good and suffer, endure it; this is acceptable in the sight of God. For this reason, the calling was quick, Christ also suffered for us, leave us an image, so that we may follow His footsteps.” Also in another place: “Beloved, do not be surprised at the reluctance in you to be tempted, as if it happens to you that is alien to you. But as soon as you partake of Christ’s passion, rejoice, for even at the revelation of His glory you will rejoice with joy. If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the glory and spirit of God rests upon you: for it is blasphemed by them, but glorified by you. Let no one suffer from you as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a stranger; if he is a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God in this part” (1 Pet. 2:20–21, 4:12–16). Let us also listen to John the Theologian: “We must,” he says, “lay down our souls as brothers... There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, for fear is torment: fear, lest you be perfect in love” (1 John 3:16, 4:18). What fear is presented to us here, if not the fear that inspires apostasy? What kind of perfect love can there be in sacred language, if not love that dispels fear and supports the courage of the confessor? What horrors should fear be punished, if not the horrors that can seize the perjurer, who will perish with body and soul in hellish fire? “Die for the brethren,” the Apostle tells us, “and how much more for Jesus Christ.” The Apocalypse prepared him too well for such advice. There the Holy Spirit wrote to the Angel of the Smyrna Church: “Behold, the devil will drive you into prison, so that you may be tempted and have tribulation until ten days. Be faithful even to death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2ff.). The same admonition was made to the Angel of Pergamon, when “the faithful witness Antipas was killed there, where Satan lives.” The same admonition was given to the Angel of Philadelphia, whom “the Lord will keep from the times of temptation that would come upon the whole world, because he kept His word and did not deny His name.” Each victorious person is promised a reward: one “to eat from the tree of life,” another “not to be harmed by the second death,” the third “to eat of the hidden manna, and have a white stone and a new name written on the stone, but no one knows it, just accept it.” Another receives “a rod of iron to chew tongues and the morning star.” This one “will be clothed in white garments, and his name will not be blotted out from the book of beasts.” He will be “a pillar in the church of God, and the name of God and the name of the city of God, new Jerusalem, will be written on him.” This will be given to “sit with the Lord on His Throne.” Who are these blessed victorious people, if not the martyrs? He who fights wins; He who sheds his blood fights. Meanwhile, the souls of the martyrs rest under the altar, feeding on the hope that they will be avenged, and, dressed in white robes, they wait until their detractors and their brethren, who suffered beatings, will die, just as they did. Indeed, “behold, the people are many, but no one can destroy them, from every tongue and tribe, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and fins in their hands. These are the ones who came out of great tribulation, and have asked for their robe and made their robe white in the blood of the Lamb.” The clothing of the soul is flesh. Its defilements are washed away by baptism, and its stains are whitened by martyrdom. In this sense, the Prophet “Isaiah” promises that the red and scarlet will become like snow and the purest wave. As for the great Babylon, drunk, according to the Apostle, “with the blood of saints”: there should be no doubt that it satisfies its drunkenness from the cup of martyrdom; but it also follows from this that whoever trembles before confession will be punished. He who apostates will be included among the rejected: but what am I saying? he will be placed at their head. “Fearful and unfaithful,” says St. “John”, “they will have their portion in the lake that burns with fire and a bogeyman.” This is the execution intended for fear, which “drives out” only “love,” as he writes in his message. 13) Paul,” from the persecutors became an Apostle, and was the first to shed his blood for the church, exchanging the sword for a pen, iron for a plow, “in the morning Benjamin is a wolf of prey, and in the evening he gives food,” according to the words of “James”: “Paul,” I say, with what fervor he extols martyrdom, which he himself longs for! Let us listen to how he writes to the Thessalonians: “For we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God, about your patience and faith, in all your persecutions and sorrows, a testimony of the righteous judgment of God, so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for whose sake you also suffer” (2 Thessalonians 1:4-5). He writes the same thing to the Romans: “Not exactly, but we also boast in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation makes perseverance work; patience is an art, and art is hope; but hope does not put one to shame” (Rom. 5:3-4). Also in another place: “If we are children, then we are also heirs, heirs of God, heirs of Christ; For as long as we suffer with Him, we will also be glorified with Him. I am insensible, for the passions of the present time are unworthy of the glory that desires to appear in us. For creation longs for the revelation of the sons of God” (Ibid. 8:17-19). That is why he subsequently adds: “Who will separate us from the love of God? Is it tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or trouble, or a sword, as it is written: Because for your sake we are slain all day long; we are counted as the sheep of the slaughter? But in all these we overcome for our beloved. For we have known that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers below, nor the present, nor the future, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:35-39). Informing the Corinthians about his sufferings, he makes a certain definition about patience: “in labor it is abundant, in wounds it is abundant, in prisons it is abundant, in death it is abundant. From the Jews, five times fourty, perhaps they came together, struck with clubs, struck with a single stone,” etc. (2 Cor. 11:23–25). If all this seems to you more like troubles in life than martyrdom, then listen further. “With this I will find comfort in weaknesses, in troubles, in troubles, in exiles, in troubles, according to Christ” (Ibid. 12:10). In one of the previous chapters, he expresses himself in the same way: “in everything it is sorrowful, but not cold; hopeless, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; overthrown, but not destroyed; always bearing the death of the Lord Jesus in the body, and the life of Jesus in our body will appear.” Then he adds: “even though our outer man decays,” that is, the flesh decays from the cruelty of persecution, “however, the inner man is renewed all the days,” that is, the soul is renewed with the hope of promises. “Even though now our light sorrow, after multiplying into prosperity, brings the burden of eternal glory to us, who do not look at us visible, but invisible: visible more” (as in troubles in life), “temporary”: “invisible” (like rewards), “eternal” (Ibid. 4:8–18), he thanks God that they not only “received the word of God”, but also “suffered from their fellow tribesmen in Christ” Jesus (1 Thessalonians 2:13–14). He writes to the Philippians: “even if I am hungry for the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and rejoice with you all: you also rejoice and rejoice with me” (Phil. 2:17). Can you hear? He not only extols the happiness of martyrdom, but also demands that it be accompanied by mutual joy. Likewise, look at how he congratulates himself in his letter to Timothy, feeling that he is already approaching the goal of his desires! “I am already hungry, and the time of my departure has come. I fought the good fight, I died, I kept the faith. Otherwise, the crown of righteousness will be kept for me,” that is, the crown of martyrdom, “which the Lord will reward me on that day” (2 Tim. 4:6–8). Above, he had already taught his beloved disciple enough: “the Word is true,” he says; “If we die with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will reign with Him; If we reject, He will reject us; Even if we do not believe, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself... Do not be ashamed of the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, nor of me as His enemy” (Ibid. 2:11-13). Even higher, he said: “God will not give us the spirit of fear, but power and love and chastity.” Indeed, we suffer with strength and chastity, quickened by the love of God, when we suffer innocently. What does it mean in the mouth of the Apostle to encourage us to be patient, if not preparation for sorrows? However, removing us from idolatry does not mean snatching the crown of martyrdom from his hands? 14) Paul,” among other things, writes to the Romans: “Let every soul be subject to the powers that be; There is no power, if not from God: the existing powers were created by God... Princes are not afraid of good deeds, but of evil. If you want not to be afraid of power, do good, and you will receive praise from him: for God is a servant, for your good. If you do evil, be afraid; He doesn’t wear a sword in vain; For he is God’s servant, an avenger of anger against those who do evil” (Rom. 13:1–4). Therefore, he commands you to submit to the authorities, not in order to give you a chance to avoid martyrdom, but to exhort you to live decently, because the authorities are the instruments of justice and the executors of the divine judgment carried out here on earth over criminals. “Give everyone their due: a lesson, a lesson, and a tribute, a tribute to him” (Ibid.); that is, “render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto the Gods that are God's”; man belongs only to God. “Peter” also said: “Honor the king” (1 Peter 2:17). But how should we honor him? To honor as long as he remains within the limits of his power, as long as he does not encroach on divine honors. We also love our father and mother, as long as they are not compared to God. However, one is not allowed to love one’s soul more than God. 15) What then? Are the Apostolic Epistles contradictory? Are we so simple, are we innocent pigeons, that we willingly wander around? Let it be so. Let's deprive the letter of its real meaning. However, we know the sufferings of the Apostles: they themselves constitute open teaching. To be convinced of this, you just have to look through the book of the Apostolic Acts: nothing more is needed. I find in it everywhere dungeons, shackles, scourgings, stonings, flashing swords, crowds of swearing Jews, crowds of raging people, tribunes blaspheming, kings interrogating, proconsuls pronouncing judicial sentences. There was no point in using the name of Caesar as a benefit. “Peter” was crucified, “Stephen” was stoned, “James” was killed, “Paul” was beheaded: these are the incidents written in blood. Doesn't the heretic want to have other evidence to support this book? The chronicles of the empire will speak like the ancient walls of Jerusalem. I open the biography of the Caesars. “Nero” is the first to bloody the cradle of faith in Rome. It was then that “Peter”, nailed to the cross, was girded with someone else’s hand; "Paul", having taken the name of a Roman citizen, was reborn with a new life through his glorious martyrdom. Wherever I encounter such suffering, I learn to suffer. Who should I choose as a teacher of martyrdom, the words of the Apostles, or the authority of their death? It doesn’t matter to me, as long as I find that their words are justified by their exploits. It is true that they would not have subjected themselves to suffering if they were of the opinion that they should not suffer. When “Agabus” predicted to “Paul” that he would be bound in Jerusalem, all the disciples begged him with tears not to go to this city. Vain prayer! Being faithful to his daily teachings, the Apostle answers them with firmness: “What are you doing, weeping and breaking your heart? For I am not exactly bound to be, but I am ready to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 21:13). Then they fell silent, saying: “The will of the Lord be done,” being without a doubt convinced that martyrdom is in the will of God. That is why Pavlov’s disciples, although they regretted the Apostle, did not dissuade him from confessing. If some “Prodicus” or “Valentine” had decided to whisper in his ear that there is no need to confess the Lord before people here, that especially one should not believe that God thirsts for human blood, and that Christ does not demand martyrdom as retribution, expecting from him as if his own salvation: then, of course, he would have heard from the lips of a servant of God the very curse that the Lord pronounced to Satan: “Follow Me Satan, My temptation.” Thou art” (Matthew 16:23); “For it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and shalt serve Him alone” (Ibid. 4:10). May these very words now fall on the head of the sectarian because, long after this saying, he secretly sowed his poison into the hearts of weak people, which will have a detrimental effect on them as they carelessly begin to dip their lips in the saving drink that we offer them in the name of faith, and which constitutes a protective medicine or antidote. There are no Abaskants among the Valentine gods. This word is Greek, meaning amulets, apparently used in mockery. Written in 209 A.D. You might be interested in: