There is going to be one test after another. We have to see every big event in the world as a spiritual test that examines where our loyalties truly lie, with God or something in this world and that something may even be a Church. At the same time we must retain a sense of balance and not become contrary just for the sake of it. A difficult path to tread but that is the point of the present times when the heart is examined.
14 March 2022 at 10:26
Ann K. said...
Our only hope is to live as Orthodox Christians in every sense, as did the Russian catacomb saints of eighty or so years ago. It can be done, God willing! https://churchtodayrus.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/russias-catacomb-saints.pdf
@Ann - I know that book, at it is well worth looking through.
@William - In a strange way this is almost a time where what you understand and know, is more important than what you do; in the sense that too many people are too keen on 'doing good' and 'making the world a better place' without troubling to know (discern) good in the first place. And so they end up doing evil - in the sense of actively assisting in the strategy of evil.
*Can* a man be primarily loyal to an institution, or can we fundamentally only be loyal to living beings? In the second case, loyalty to an institution would always be mediated through an actual person (My uncle reads The Guardian, so I can trust The Guardian; my neighbors go to church, so I can trust the church) If this is so, there is some worldly hope because people change. If on he other hand a man can *truly* believe an institution, essentially a legal fiction, over living beings it seems there is no limit to the evil he might believe. I can't tell which is the case.
@James - Yes; and also assumed is that these two concepts of Christian churches need to be distinguished - because currently there isn't much overlap between the 'churches of man' and the 'mystical church''.
17 March 2022 at 08:22
A Christian cannot for long stay a Christian nowadays; if he regards loyalty/ obedience to his church as primary. In a world where The System is evil in motivation and net-activity, anyone whose primary loyalty is to any institution will be vulnerable to being drawn to support The System - whenever their institution is threatened. And anyone who is drawn to support The System cannot for long be Christian; because The System serves Satan. And this conflict between Christ and Church will happen, is happening, as often as the powers of evil can contrive it. For instance; it seems apparent than many devout traditionalists Christians have chosen to support The System over the past few weeks; apparently because they perceive an existential threat to their church. But the fact is that The System can contrive events such that any church can be acutely threatened at almost any time; and indeed all churches, because they are institutions, are dependent on The System for their survival and sustaining. Churches are linked by many ties with The System bureaucracies and mass media - economics, finance, laws (employment law, workplace regulation, laws to do with buildings and utilities etc), with educational provision and may other links. Any church can therefore (in principle - if 'necessary) be subjected to a coordinated international official-media destructive hate-fest of lies, misinformation, fake news, hostile propaganda and PSYOPS such as we have seen for the birdemic-peck, antiracism, climate and the current Oceana-Eurasia frenzy. Whether at this extreme, or by a more attritional process; sooner or later, every serious Christian church has-been or will-be faced by an immediate threat to its survival - unless it complies with one or another (eventually all) of the priorities of The System. The church will then either orientate to The System, or acutely be destroyed as an institution. In other words; all that is worldly about churches will be assimilated or destroyed, along with those adherents who are loyal to it; and only that which is 'not of this world' will remain Christian. The adherents of that church will then face the choice between God and Church, Jesus Christ and Church, being a Christian and Church. Indeed, this has already happened, and is in the past for many Christians in many churches. Those who remain in these churches, and remain primarily loyal to the church, are in The System - and being led ever deeper. Some traditionalist Christians who survived the birdemic-peck have succumbed to System assimilation in the past few weeks - as they decide to support their church's here-and-now survival as first priority. All will come to this crux sooner or later, and the pace increases; as something that we personally love - yet which depends upon The System - is threatened. But church survival - the survival of any institution we love, is only acute and short-term. In the end, everything of this world depends on The System; can be destroyed by The System - and The System is destroying itself - and with increasing rapidity.So survival of any institutional church is in fact only a stay of execution, a delay from destruction. Which means that those who accepted The System into their hearts in order that their church would survive; will see their churches be destroyed - and be left with nothing but The System. This we should expect; should regard as eventually inevitable. Christ's kingdom is not of this world, because this world is mortal, and resurrection comes after death. The kingdom of this world is Satan's - more and more obviously so; and insofar as any church is of this world, that church will be part of the Satanic System.Thus, Christians cannot primarily be loyal to any church. Faith must be rooted in the next world, or perish.
"Christians who are primarily loyal to their churches are being assimilated into The (Satanic) System"
6 Comments -
There is going to be one test after another. We have to see every big event in the world as a spiritual test that examines where our loyalties truly lie, with God or something in this world and that something may even be a Church. At the same time we must retain a sense of balance and not become contrary just for the sake of it. A difficult path to tread but that is the point of the present times when the heart is examined.
14 March 2022 at 10:26
Our only hope is to live as Orthodox Christians in every sense, as did the Russian catacomb saints of eighty or so years ago. It can be done, God willing! https://churchtodayrus.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/russias-catacomb-saints.pdf
14 March 2022 at 11:26
@Ann - I know that book, at it is well worth looking through.
@William - In a strange way this is almost a time where what you understand and know, is more important than what you do; in the sense that too many people are too keen on 'doing good' and 'making the world a better place' without troubling to know (discern) good in the first place. And so they end up doing evil - in the sense of actively assisting in the strategy of evil.
14 March 2022 at 12:03
*Can* a man be primarily loyal to an institution, or can we fundamentally only be loyal to living beings? In the second case, loyalty to an institution would always be mediated through an actual person (My uncle reads The Guardian, so I can trust The Guardian; my neighbors go to church, so I can trust the church) If this is so, there is some worldly hope because people change. If on he other hand a man can *truly* believe an institution, essentially a legal fiction, over living beings it seems there is no limit to the evil he might believe. I can't tell which is the case.
14 March 2022 at 14:04
The only edit I'd suggest, Dr. Bruce, is that we're talking Churches here, organised by man, as distinct from the church of Christian souls worldwide.
17 March 2022 at 07:20
@James - Yes; and also assumed is that these two concepts of Christian churches need to be distinguished - because currently there isn't much overlap between the 'churches of man' and the 'mystical church''.
17 March 2022 at 08:22