A word against Armenian evil

Armenian evil, made up of various heresies, contains three main and more wicked and vile heresies than others. The first of them and the worst of all is that they philosophize that during the saving suffering of God the Word, the impassive Divinity suffered death, like humanity; the second, which asserts that the Word of God incarnate, after ascending to heaven, was stripped of the Divine flesh He received from the most pure blood of the Most Pure Mother of God; the third incorrectly confuses two natures that were not united in Christ - human and Divine, which seem to have become one nature. These are their main godless heresies. What can we, Orthodox Christians, say against this? Do we agree with them that this is so? No way! Let us not ever accept such unholy and blasphemous thoughts about the one, essentially ever-present, immortal and impassive God’s nature and His immortality, which even the godless demons themselves do not tolerate hearing and cannot say. And this is clear from what the destructive and evil serpent said to the foremother Eve, saying with flattery: “You will not die by death. God knows that even if you take away the day from him, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods. knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4–5), that is, you will be immortal and incorruptible, like God Himself, who created you. But to talk much about the immortality of the Creator of all is not only unnecessary, but also ridiculous, for not only the divinely inspired Scriptures are filled with evidence of the immortality of the Ever-Essential Life of all, but also the most external philosophers and rhetoricians in their writings beautifully sing of the majesty of the Ever-Essential Divine immortality. How can the damned Armenians, with the damned Dioscorus, claim that the immortal nature of Christ’s Divinity died along with His holy flesh? And if, according to them, His impassive, immortal and uncreated Divinity underwent death, then His holy soul, as created together with the flesh, died along with His Divinity. And if we admit that this is so, then how can we say that He descended into hell and smashed the copper gates and iron ropes and brought out the righteous who had been kept there for centuries? If He died both in the flesh and in Divinity and soul, then how true will be what was said by the Crucified Himself: “For this sake the Father loves Me, because I lay down My soul, that I may again receive it”; and again: “The imam will lay down the region, and the imam will again accept the region” (John 10:17–18)? And if, according to them, He died, both in the flesh and in Divinity and soul, then how could He, who is the innumerable power of the Almighty God, accept it, being completely dead? If the human soul, created verbally and immortally, cannot die, then how did the Life of all, One having immortality, “in the living light unapproachable” (1 Tim. 6:16), die on the cross by His immortal Divinity? And that this heretical wisdom is blasphemous and godless and deceitful, Alamundar the Ishmaelite very wisely showed, who turned to the pious Orthodox Christian faith and was baptized with his entire house and family. For the bad Sevier, having heard about the conversion of the Ishmaelite from his fatherly wickedness to the Orthodox faith, sent to him two bishops of the same wisdom, trying to convert him to his godless heresy. When they came and spoke to him for a long time about Sevier’s teaching, he dismissed them, saying: “Tomorrow we’ll talk about this again.” When they left, he ordered one of his faithful servants, saying: “When those sent by Sevier come to me again and begin to tell me their heretical teaching, then you come to me and whisper in my ear: “Archangel Michael is already dead.” When they came and talked cunningly for a long time before the newly enlightened Alamundar, then in the midst of their conversation the aforementioned servant of his came up to him and whispered in his master’s ear, as he was ordered. Then Alamundar immediately began to feign sadness and mourn and, lowering his head down to his chest, sat silently, not paying attention to the words of the bishops. When they began to diligently inquire about the reason for his such intense grief, he answered them: “I received news that the Archangel Michael died; then how can I not grieve when I have lost such a guardian? They immediately cried out: “Do not believe it, dear prince, do not attach any importance to such news, this is an obvious lie, for the angelic nature is not subject to death, being created by the immortal Creator of all.” Then Alamundar said to them: “Tell me, I ask you, if the angelic nature, which the Creator of all by His grace created immortal, cannot die, then the beginningless and ever-present, the only one who has immortality by nature, “in the living light is unapproachable” - how could he die with His immortal Divinity during His saving suffering? You are greatly mistaken and are far from the truth and from your teacher.” With such wise intention, that newly enlightened Ishmaelite stopped their mouths and put them to shame. We will also hear another amazing miracle - not from earth, but from heaven itself, revealed by God’s vision, to communicate true piety and to expose the godless Armenian heresy. When the most blessed Patriarch Proclus, with all the clergy and all the people, walked around the fields outside of Constantinople, making prayers and supplications with tears for an end to the frequent and terrible earthquakes, - at that time suddenly a small child from among the people was caught up into heaven, in the sight of all the believers, who cried out with great fear: “Lord have mercy!” Then the child was again placed unharmed on the ground. When the most blessed Proclus asked the child what he saw and heard there, he replied that the holy angels were singing the Trisagion there without addition, as is sung on earth by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Having said only this, the child immediately, by the incomprehensible fate of God, died. The expression “without application” means the following: the evil Sevier, thinking about the Divinity of Christ that it was subject to suffering, and wanting to confirm this heresy, taught his followers to sing the trisagion with the application in this way: “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, who suffered for us, have mercy on us.” With this addition, he, the wicked one, wanted to show that Christ’s Divinity suffered, that is, died together with His holy flesh. What could be worse and more disgusting than this blasphemy before God? If the Divinity of the Only Begotten suffered, that is, died together with His holy flesh, as they, the filthy ones, claim, then it means that the entire Holy Trinity suffered, that is, died, for there is one Divinity, one nature and one inseparable being of the three. For the Holy Trinity is divided inseparably by hypostases, but is united inseparably by being, that is, there is one God - the Holy Trinity, consubstantial, the same and divided and inseparable, divided by hypostases, and indivisible by being and nature and Divinity. Therefore, the bad Armenians with Sevier are clearly denounced that they blaspheme the Holy Trinity, recognizing Her as subject to suffering, that is, subjected to death during the saving passions of the Only Begotten. Oh, what wickedness and satanic devices! For the sake of this heresy alone, we should completely abhor them and turn away from them, according to the sayings of the divine zealot: “Have we not hated those who hate You, O Lord, and have hated Your faults; I hated them with complete hatred: they became my enemies” (Ps. 139: 21–22). Let us also listen to an amazing story about an event that was accomplished by the providence of God to demonstrate the truth and to clearly expose Sevirov’s godless blasphemy. When the fourth holy ecumenical council of 630 God-bearing Fathers met in Chalcedon, and for many days a thorough search for the truth took place, while the heretics, possessed by demonic contentiousness, strongly opposed the evidence offered by the Orthodox from the divine scriptures, both sides providentially came to the following agreement: to entrust the indication of truth to God and the all-praised martyr Euphemia. To this end they, each party separately, wrote a statement of their faith and sealed it; then, opening the shrine of the relics of the martyr, they placed both scrolls on her holy breasts, at which the Orthodox said: “You, Lord of the Heart, for the prayers of Your all-praised martyr, confirm those who resist Your truth!” Then, having covered and sealed the sacred shrine, they went to their places. A few days later, everyone again gathered in common agreement and opened the sacred shrine, and - oh, what amazing Thy miracles, surpassing all understanding, Most Good and Humane-loving Master! - they found that the holy martyr held the Orthodox scroll firmly in her holy hand, and the heretical one was thrown far from her holy feet, as abominable and full of all blasphemy. What greater proof is needed to disgrace their heresy? But they do not submit, the lawless ones! There is also a church word that says that testimony from the hostile side is considered the most reliable; Who could be more hostile to our Orthodox faith - demons? Therefore, adding to the above one more testimony expressed by demons, I will finish this word. During the reign of the darkness of idolatry, there was one place in Hellas, most famous for its magic, called Pythia, where a most beautiful idol church was erected, and in it was a famous idol, which was held in special veneration by all the infidels, which was called the tongue of their god Apollo. Infidels of all nations flocked here from everywhere, and each one, by demonic cunning, received an answer to his question from the soothsayer, the priestess of the god Apollo, and therefore all the infidel peoples had great faith in this god. After the saving suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ and after His ascension into heaven, when the light of true knowledge of God shone throughout the sun, and some joyfully followed the apostolic sermon and accepted holy baptism, while others strongly resisted this and contradicted it, and a lot of research about this and internecine warfare arose throughout the universe, then a certain priest of Apollo, seeing such great confusion befalling the entire universe, which in a short time shook all nations, and wanting to find out from his god Apollo what this new sermon, sweeping throughout the entire universe, about the newly revealed God, Jesus Christ, was, he dared to ask the idol of his god Apollo about this. The demon, secretly enmity against Christ's good faith, was angry with his servant for the question he asked, did not praise him, but said: “It would be better if you had not asked me about this at all, oh my accursed servant!” However, being forced by Divine power, in brief words and reluctantly, he told his servant the terrible secret of the incarnation of Christ God the Word and His saving passion, adding at the end: “He who suffered is God, but His Divinity did not suffer.” What will the inglorious Sevier say after this with his followers, the thrice-cursed Armenians, who recognize the victim of the Divinity of Christ? This soothsayer Apollo, deceitful in many other ways, being forced by the power of God, confessed, and against his will, the Savior Christ, as subject to suffering and as not subject to it; subject to suffering according to humanity, for he was a perfect man, and not subject to suffering according to Divinity. Dioscorus and Sevier and their followers, the damned Armenians, are they not afraid, claiming that the immortal Divinity of Christ was subjected to suffering during His saving sufferings? For this reason, I advise you, as a faithful friend and beloved brother, to leave behind their bad fellowship and flattering conversation with them, if you really want to keep yourself alive to the end in the right faith received from your ancestors. For “good customs are corrupted by evil conversations,” says the Apostolic Word. And again the same: “deny that a person is a heretic according to the first and second punishment” (Titus 3:10). The damned Armenians, not the first and second, but the seven councils, oppose the teachings: how can we consider them worthy of communication and conversation with us? Whoever wants to treat a leper will become infected with his leprosy, but will not give him health. Know also that every heresy has the devil as its leader; for he is the same enemy-man mentioned in the Gospel, who, in the midst of the wheat of the pure and infallible gospel knowledge of God, sowed evil tares, that is, various godless heresies, into which the all-filthy one tries to draw us and through them to separate us from the infallible Orthodox faith, according to the teachings of which we believe in the ever-present and beginningless Divinity of the Almighty and the consubstantial and indivisible Holy Trinity, and into the terrible and surpassing all mind and word-mystery of the incarnation of the Only Begotten Son, the One of the Holy Trinity, through whom and by whom the arrows of the strong in malice were finally crushed, and his weapons disappeared, and the cities were ruined, and he himself, like a weak bird, is the subject of reproach and trampling upon for all who truly and with all their soul believe in the crucified Jesus Christ, the victor demons Let us not remain in carelessness and insensibility when we have such an irreconcilable enemy and accuser of our life and our salvation, but let us constantly be sober and watchful - and just as he never ceases to arm himself against us with all sorts of intrigues, strongly desiring our destruction, so we will arm ourselves against his militia and his champions, the godless heretics, with the weapons of good faith, and we will protect ourselves with all reason and knowledge divinely inspired scriptures, so that we too can someday touch stronger food, and not spend our entire lives eating “milk.” Let us arm ourselves firmly with the full armor of dogmas, such as the theological chapters of the wise John of Damascus, let us study them firmly so that with their edge we will be able to block the unclosed lips of our opponents, and we will destroy every exaltation raised against the mind of Christ; for Christ has given us power to tread on the serpent and the scorpion and all the power of the enemy. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood,” that is, against weak people, “but against the rulers, and against the powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness” (Eph. 6:12), whom the Lord will destroy through various intrigues and misfortunes, and may He preserve us unharmed forever. Amen.