ЕРЕСИ, ЕРЕТИКИ

How can a priest boldly appear before the throne of God and face to face with God Himself and perform intercessory “prayers, petitions, supplications, thanksgivings for all people, for kings and for all those in authority” (1 Tim. 2:1, 2), perform the saving Terrible Sacraments, at which the Angels stand with trembling, especially at the Sacrament of the most pure Body and Blood of the Son of God? How can one dare to raise one’s hands in prayer to the Heavenly Father and ask for such terrible things as the transformation of bread and wine into the most pure Body and Blood of Christ? How can one dare to do such things without the grace and help of the Holy Spirit? How can one dare to resolve the sins of people bound by them, who come running to them with pleas for acceptance of their confession? How to perform the Mystery of rebirth, or Baptism, without the grace of the Holy Spirit? Unfortunately, there are many graceless impostors who deceive the ignorant but gullible people, who are not afraid of the all-seeing One, who will punish not only in the next century, but also in this life, the blasphemers of the Holy Spirit. Who are these impudent fools? Heretics, schismatics and sectarians (3). Whose words are these: take, eat: this is My Body, broken for you for the remission of sins. And drink of it, all of you, this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins? (cf. Matt. 26:26–28; 1 ​​Cor. 11:24). Are these not the words of the all-good and all-powerful Creator and the all-generous Savior of the entire human race, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the whole world? (cf. John 1:29). The heretic Aryan relegated the Creator to the genus of creatures and did not recognize Him as consubstantial and co-eternal with the Father, one with Him and the Holy Spirit. Can a creature transform the essence of things into a completely different nature, for example, wheat bread into the most pure Body of God and red grape wine into the most pure life-giving Blood of God? Isn’t it only the Almighty Creator who can create and implement this? But Arius and his like-minded people, who numbered tens of thousands, did not recognize Jesus Christ as the Creator. This was the great misfortune for the Orthodox and heretics: if they trusted Arius, they would have lost communion with the Church and eternal salvation. The heretic Arius wanted to destroy the saving Orthodox faith and introduce a heretical, destructive faith. Therefore, Orthodox bishops, clergy and Orthodox laymen strongly opposed Arius, (also) the pious Emperor Constantine Equal-to-the-Apostles himself, who gathered saints from all over the Orthodox world - bishops, presbyters and partly deacons, among whom was the holy Archdeacon Athanasius of Alexandria, who was later appointed Archbishop of Alexandria in Egypt. They examined, weighed and refuted the wicked teaching of Arius and his associates and condemned them as ungodly and destructive, and compiled an exposition of the Orthodox faith, or the Creed, for all times until the end of the age according to the clear and powerful and wise teaching of the Holy Spirit of God. And to this day we unanimously and unanimously believe in this Creed and do not add a single iota to it, so as not to lose salvation for a false addition or insertion, like Catholics, Lutherans and Anglicans (4). The devil and the entire fallen council of evil spirits are all-powerfully, unanimously, cunningly, evilly, subtly striving to pervert, transform, destroy the wise, all-good, eternal intentions of God regarding the purpose, perfection and eternal bliss of the human race; to pervert and corrupt the soul and body of man, to defile, corrupt, cool and alienate people from God and from each other; they try to give every thought, every feeling, every movement of the will a sinful, unclean, insane, absurd, disastrous direction; They constantly try to blaspheme and humiliate God and His saints, everything holy and great. Even the very Word of God, the devil tries by all means to corrupt through the false wisdom of men and through this to deprive people of light, the truth of God and the salvation of the soul, as he did and does through various heresies of the first centuries and subsequent ones regarding the person of Jesus Christ and the union in Him of two natures, divine and human, and about the relationship of the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, regarding the veneration of holy icons, relics and other things. Thus he corrupts and distorts the Word of God and human souls with the false wisdom of Catholics, Lutherans, and Anglicans. Lutherans and Anglicans do not fully believe the Gospel, although they are called evangelicals, not believing in the transubstantiation of bread and wine in the Holy Eucharist (5). A fallen, corrupted person can only rise and be renewed through deep repentance and the resolution of sins by spiritual authority and the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ - certainly the Blood - under a special form of wine, as the Lord established, and not without Blood must receive the resolution of sins from an Orthodox priest who has legal ordination and God-given authority, Body and Blood, from a legitimate Orthodox priest, and not from a papist or Lutherans who do not give the Blood of Christ! Oh, human superstition! Oh, deceit, the intricacy of lies! The papists deprived the laity of the Blood of Christ, shed for the cleansing of sins. Oh, headless supremacy, acting contrary to the true head - Christ God! Oh, Lutherans, who have lost the grace and truth of the Sacraments! How can you give grace to others without the spirit of Christ, the truth and the righteousness of Christ? Protestants and reformers, pastors and archpastors, tell me, how can you renew the people and lead them to a holy life, when you yourself do not have the grace and authority of power and strength from the Holy Spirit, which you cannot receive anywhere except the Holy Orthodox Church? Tell me, how can you accomplish the work of renewing humanity, which can only be done by God and the one to whom He gave His grace and authority through episcopal ordination? You have no priesthood; How dare you take on such a task that is beyond your strength? You yourselves are not renewed, and you do not renew the people, you do not sanctify and you do not purify (5). The beginning of all false teachings, heresies, sects, schisms is in the serpent that flatters the universe. The first all-destructive false teaching was taught by the serpent in paradise to Eve, then to Adam, then to Cain, to whom the primordial murderer-devil falsely whispered against his brother Abel that he stood in his way, went against him, did not think, did not feel, did not live like him, and seemed to laugh at him, swear at him. This is where all the heresies, sects and schisms come from. They want to be teachers, but not from God, but from themselves and according to their passions. From there are the Tolstoyans, Pashkovites, Stundists and others (10). You might be interested in: