{"id":8586,"date":"2025-11-11T20:20:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T19:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hesychia.eu\/?p=8586"},"modified":"2025-11-16T09:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T08:41:14","slug":"religion_future_preface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hesychia.eu\/index.php\/2025\/11\/11\/religion_future_preface\/","title":{"rendered":"Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future – Preface"},"content":{"rendered":"

How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them\u2026 Not everyone that saith to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and cast out devils in Thy name, and done many miracles in Thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. Every one therefore that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock. [1]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

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Every heresy has its own \u201cspirituality,\u201d its own characteristic approach to the practical religious life. Thus, Roman Catholicism, until re\u00adcently, had a clearly distinguishable piety of its own, bound up with the rosary, the \u201cSacred Heart,\u201d the \u201cBlessed Sacrament,\u201d and the like; and a careful Orthodox observer could detect in such aspects of modern Latin \u201cspirituality\u201d the practical results of the theological errors of Rome. Fundamentalist Prot\u00adestantism, too, has its own approach to prayer, its typical hymns, its approach to spiritual \u201crevival\u201d; and in all of these can be detected the application to religious life of its fundamental errors in Christian doctrine. The present book is about the \u201cspirituality\u201d of Ecumenism, the chief heresy of the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Until recently it appeared that Ecumenism was such an artificial construct, such a syncretic conglomeration of heresies, that it had no spirituality of its own; the \u201cliturgical\u201d agenda of Ecumenical gatherings both great and small appeared to be no more than an elaborate Protestant Sunday service.<\/p>\n

But the very nature of the Ecumenist heresy\u2014the belief that there is no one visible Church of Christ, that it is only now being formed\u2014is such that it disposes the soul under its influence to certain spiritual attitudes which, in time, should produce a typical Ecumenist \u201cpiety\u201d and \u201cspirituality.\u201d In our day this seems to be happening at last, as the Ecumenical attitude of religious \u201cexpectancy\u201d and \u201csearching\u201d begins to be rewarded by the activity of a certain \u201cspirit\u201d which gives religious satisfaction to the barren souls of the Ecumenist wasteland and results in a characteristic \u201cpiety\u201d which is no longer merely Protestant in tone.<\/p>\n

This book was begun in 1971 with an examination of the latest \u201cEcu\u00admenical\u201d fashion\u2014the opening of a \u201cdialogue with non-Christian religions.\u201d Four chapters on this subject were printed in The Orthodox Word<\/em> in 1971 and 1972, reporting chiefly on the events of the late 1960s up to early 1972. The last of these chapters was a detailed discussion of the \u201ccharismatic revival\u201d which had just then been taken up by several \u201cOrthodox\u201d priests in America, and this movement was described as a form of \u201cEcumenical spirituality\u201d inclusive of religious experiences which are distinctly non-Christian in nature.<\/p>\n

Especially this last chapter aroused a great deal of interest among Orth\u00adodox people, and it helped to persuade some not to take part in the \u201ccharis\u00admatic\u201d movement. Others, who had already participated in \u201ccharismatic\u201d meet\u00adings, left the movement and confirmed many of the conclusions of this article about it. Since then the \u201ccharismatic revival\u201d in \u201cOrthodox\u201d parishes in Amer\u00adica, judging from Fr. Eusebius Stephanou\u2019s periodical The Logos,<\/em> has entirely adopted the language and techniques of Protestant revivalism, and its un-Orthodox character has become clear to any serious observer. Despite the Protest\u00adant mentality of its promoters, however, the \u201ccharismatic revival\u201d as a \u201cspiritual\u201d movement is definitely something more than Protestantism. The characterization of it in this article as a kind of \u201cChristian\u201d medinmism,<\/em> which has been cor\u00adroborated by a number of observers of it, links it to the new \u201cEcumenical spirituality\u201d out of which is being born a new, non-Christian religion.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 1974, one of the American monasteries of the Russian Church Outside of Russia was visited by a young man who had been directed to one of its monks by the \u201cspirit\u201d who constantly attended him. During his brief visit the story of this young man unfolded itself. He was from a con\u00adservative Protestant background which he found spiritually barren, and he had been opened up to \u201cspiritual\u201d experiences by his Pentecostalist grandmother: the moment he touched a Bible she had given him, he received \u201cspiritual gifts\u201d\u2014most notably, he was attended by an invisible \u201cspirit\u201d who gave him precise instructions as to where to walk and drive; and he was able at will to hypno\u00adtize others and cause them to levitate (a talent which he playfully used to terrorize atheist acquaintances). Occasionally he would doubt that his \u201cgifts\u201d were from God, but these doubts were overcome when he reflected on the fact that his spiritual \u201cbarrenness\u201d had vanished, that his \u201cspiritual rebirth\u201d had been brought about by contact with the Bible,<\/em> and that he seemed to be leading a very rich life of prayer and \u201cspirituality.\u201d Upon becoming acquainted with Orthodoxy at this monastery, and especially after reading the article on the \u201ccharismatic revival,\u201d he admitted that here he found the first thorough and clear explanation of his \u201cspiritual\u201d experiences; most likely, he confessed, his \u201cspirit\u201d was an evil one. This realization, however, did not seem to touch his heart, and he left without being converted to Orthodoxy.<\/p>\n

How many such \u201cbarren Christians\u201d there are in the world today! The \u201ccharismatic revival\u201d seems to have been devised just for them. Others, how\u00adever, are less attached to \u201cChristianity,\u201d and their spiritual unrest leads them to Eastern religions. For this reason a fifth chapter has been added to this book, describing three kinds of \u201cChristian meditation\u201d which also produce \u201cspiritual\u201d results which are very impressive to those who come from the luke\u00adwarmness of modern \u201cChristianity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after the publication of the article on the \u201ccharismatic revival,\u201d The Orthodox Word<\/em> received a letter from a respected Russian Orthodox ecclesiastical writer who is well versed in Orthodox theological and spiritual literature, saying: \u201cWhat you have described here is the religion of the future, the religion of Antichrist.\u201d More and more, as this and similar forms of counterfeit spirituality take hold even of nominal Orthodox Christians, one shudders to behold the deception into which spiritually unprepared Christians can fall. This book is a warning to them and to all trying to live a conscious Orthodox Christian life in a world possessed by unclean spirits. It is not an exhaustive treatment of this religion, which has not yet attained its final form, but rather a preliminary exploration of those spiritual tendencies which, it would indeed seem, are preparing the way for a true religion of anti-Christianity, a religion outwardly \u201cChristian,\u201d but centered upon a pagan \u201cinitiation\u201d experience.<\/p>\n

May this description of the increasingly evident and brazen activity of satan, the prince of darkness, among \u201cChristians,\u201d inspire True Orthodox Christians with the fear of losing God\u2019s grace and turn them back to the pure sources of Christian life: the spiritual doctrine of the Holy Fathers of Orthodoxy!<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Matt. 7:14\u201416, 21\u201314<\/p>\n

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\u00a0by Saint Seraphim of Platina<\/a> [\u20201982<\/strong>]<\/h3>\n

The Orthodox Word<\/em>, Vol. 11, No. 1 (60), January-February 1975, pp. 16-18<\/a><\/h4>\n

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Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future<\/div>
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The Orthodox Pilgrim<\/div>
I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? St. Luke 12\u00a0:49 <\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
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Saint Seraphim of Platina [\u20201982] | Digital Archive<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n