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| Elder Athanasios Mitilinaios is pictured on the left |
Editor's Introduction: This text below, of Elder Athanasios Mitilinaios, sheds much light on the dark ideas behind and within the Cretan “Mission” document (2016), and documents of the same type which reveal the so-called "social mission" of the "Moscow Patriarchate" (2000, 2017) and other such deviational happenings within the Orthodox world - not excluding the recent attempt of many to subordinate the Church to the C.v.d agenda!
Other examples include, but are not limited to: the "green agenda" of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the "MP" agenda of building a New Multi-Polar World Order based on "traditional morality" (this is that spirit of chiliasm)!
Moreover, one may ponder: how can a Local Church be considered as "free" when her leaders willing enslave her to their self-chosen agendas? "...everyone who doeth sin is a slave of sin" (John 8:34). We must remember that our New Martyrs of Russia fought a mighty battle for the "freedom of the Church" - this battle is not over, but rather has become global!
For indeed, a grave danger is now present, in these our final days of Apostasy - a danger and threat that is both contained within ecumenism, yet which also extends far beyond it – a danger which could (and has) even manifested itself in the utter absence of the dreaded pan-heresy. We pray that the presentation of this text may be of benefit to some. Some key points the holy Elder makes are:
1) It is a crime to betray the mission of the Orthodox Church.
2) It is a crime to attempt to make the Church subservient to agendas which are foreign to her.
3) Traitors to the Faith will form and join the Prostitute church which collaborates unethically with the red beast. The red beast does not only mean atheism, but any secular state.
4) A church that serves the agenda of an atheist state is most certainly not the vine of God.
5) The official Church can at some point be a church in name, while simultaneously being in the service of the beast.
6) Before the days of the Antichrist, systems of global justice, philanthropy, love etc., will already be in place and all of them will be subservient to the Antichrist.
7) It is a crime to appropriate Christianity to achieve humanistic goals and agendas. That which becomes adulterated will be destroyed, that which remains intact and true, not even the gates of Hades will overcome it.
8) Christianity cannot become a social system or an ethno-cultural political system.
9) The Catacomb Church was justifiable during Soviet times because there was a church in existence which had betrayed her mission.
10) The Church will once again enter into the catacombs.
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| Elder Seraphim Shevtsov in a catacomb church of the Kharkov region (1950s) |
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The text below, unless otherwise noted, is to be found in Volume IV of the Elder’s commentary on the Book of the Revelation, pages 206-213:
“…Rome betrayed her great past. She betrayed her mission. She forgot the Apostolic constitutions and she once again began to follow in the footsteps of the ancient Rome of idolatry. Her downfall progressed after her possession by the Franks and Charlemagne and today she portrays a typical secularized church, a church following the whims of the world. The purpose of the Church is to sanctify the world, to have the world enter the life of the Church, not to have the Church espouse the life of the world.
Constantinople, the new Rome, chose the same path many times throughout history. Many times she partnered with worldly authorities and she managed to betray her mission as well. The new Rome did not hesitate to exile and persecute great and saintly Patriarchs to maintain good terms with the various demands of the palace. Both Saint John the Chrysostom and St. Gregory the Theologian were persecuted, amongst many others. Saint Arethas did not hesitate to write that the conduct of the New Rome is very comparable to the ancient Rome of idols. Accordingly, and due to her conduct, Constantinople the new Rome, was made desolate over the centuries. She progressively lost her flock and all of her territories.
Saint John of Damascus, the great theologian of the 7th century and a great Church Father, grew up in Syria, which was no longer part of the Byzantine Empire. All the eastern territories and eparchies belonged to the Arabs even in the 7th century.
Thus the new Rome lost its territories, its flock and today she tries to hold onto her leadership status through ecumenism, this tragic pan-heresy, while dragging the rest of the Orthodox Churches behind her. Sadly we see these developments occurring today with our own eyes.
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| Embracers of the Pan-Heresy of Ecumenism |
The same thing happened to the third Rome Moscow. While she accepted Christianity as late as the 10th century, she attempted to supersede the second Rome – after its fall in 1453 – and succeeded surpassing even the first Rome in terms of persecutions against the Christian Church during communism.
I have in my possession a small booklet by the Russian bishop, Innocent of Novgorod, who published this article immediately after the Russian Revolution. Our Archimandrite Sophronius Doukas, who was serving as a parish priest of Kisnovo, Romania, translated it and circulated it here in Greece in 1935.
Bishop Innocent attempts to correlate the events of the communist revolution with the prophecies of the Revelation. He wishes to point out the realization of some of these prophecies in terms of the persecution of the Church and the actions of the God-opposing powers in general. Furthermore he offers his interpretation on the special relationships of the great Prostitute who rides the beast.
The Russian bishop writes in his booklet (on page 96): “What is the significance of the beautifully clothed woman? (Revelation 17:4) She is not a serpent. She is not a beast having nothing in common with the people. She is not an unintelligent person who has nothing to do with Christianity. She is a human being indeed, a woman of luxury, adorned with purple, scarlet and precious gems. This woman refers to a Christian organization but not to a naked and deformed institution, not a heretical or Protestant sect; on the contrary, this woman clothed in luxury has special laws, great worship and formality. Indeed this is the living official church, the Prostitute. Such an organization manifested itself in Russia during the rule of the red beast.”
What is this “Living Church”? It is the union of Christianity, in this case with red atheism. Unfortunately those who consider themselves representatives of Christianity, servants of God (clergy), became servants of Satan while pretending to be in the service of God. One can truly marvel pondering the conception of this “Living Church”.
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| Alexander Vvedensky of the "Living Church" |
When the atheists socialists declared war against God and Russia and proceeded to close monasteries, churches, to persecute, torture and execute bishops, irrespective of dogma, some Orthodox priests went to the Red Authority (Bolsheviks) to object to the persecution of the clergy.
The Communist Party responded as follows: the clergy are considered enemies of the Communist Party and socialism because they support the authority of the Tsar. The appellant priests answered that they had no problem serving and cooperating with the Soviet authorities as long as they were given all the rights that they had under the Tsars.
The Soviet party agreed to give them whatever rights they wished for as long as they became agents of the red atheist authority and agreed to work for the extinction of all the enemies of the atheist state, not excluding the Christian religion. This group of abominable priests of the previous official Church accepted this proposal and immediately seceded from the Church and the Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow.
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| St. Tikhon of Moscow |
They immediately formed their own community with the name “Living Church”. By treading on this path, this woman dressed in luxury proved to be a prostitute riding upon the Red Beast. The representatives of Christ formed an alliance with the servants of the devil for the extinction of Christianity.
The “Living Church” formed a synod that was ratified by the atheist Soviet authority and established the general civil office (GPU), a committee of 3 atheists to commence and see to it that the synod gladly fulfilled and performed all requests of the red atheists of the Soviet state.
After this the agenda of the destruction of sacred Christian treasures and symbols was immediately implemented. The triad of the atheists, the committee over the synod, for example, expressed the desire to close all the monasteries. The synod, like a puppet, officially requested the closing of all the monasteries in the Soviet state. The Soviet state immediately “complied” with the request of the synod. The closing of the monasteries began. The monks and nuns were dismissed. The churches were turned into hospitals, nightclubs, theaters, etc.
To the general outcry, bursts of anger, cursing, and grumbling of the faithful, the red authority would commonly respond that this was not their idea; they were simply fulfilling the request of the “Christian synod”. Through this sinister methodology they closed many churches, and incarcerated, sent to concentration camps and executed myriads of bishops, priests and simple faithful Christians.
As expected, the “Living Church” introduced many innovations; married priests were promoted to bishops and widowed priests were permitted to remarry while maintaining the office of the priesthood. Each bishop and priest of the “Living Church” was also an agent and informant of the GPU, the supreme council of the Soviet Union.
They turned in and brought charges against anyone, relative or stranger, who would speak against the atheist communist Soviet state. Ever so obedient to the desires of the authority and against the ecclesiastical canons they defrocked Patriarch Tikhon, denying him even the schema of a simple monk. It is impossible to enumerate all those who they surrendered to the cause of the red dragon through martyrdom and death. In short, the “Living Church” applauded, endorsed and blessed all the murderous activities of the Soviet state and cursed the enemies of the red serpent.
Let’s not think that the dissolute woman riding the red beast resembles only the “Living Church” of Moscow and her members; its meaning is much broader. The scope of the Great Prostitute encompasses all Christians, who irrespective of where they may be, while retaining the label of Christians, work for the destruction of Christianity* and for the benefit of the red beast of atheism. Thus throughout all the centuries, and even in our days, Christians of all ranks, laypeople, priests, bishops, metropolitans, patriarchs and popes became subservient to the beast, personifying the Prostitute. Bishop Innocent of Novgorod is quite clear in these matters and there is no need for us to further explain or comment.
[*Christianity is destroyed not only by external violence, but even more so by distorting the teachings, mission, and spirit of the Church from within - editor.]
We must only attest that the same climate is beginning to exist here in Greece. May God help us. We are also beginning to betray our Church. The official Church can at some point be a church in name, while simultaneously being in the service of the beast. This reality can be seen and concluded through many elements, biblical, geographical and patristic. I believe it will be very helpful for us to revisit chapter 11.
“Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff and I was told, ‘Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for 42 months’” (Revelations 11:1-2).
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| St. John the Theologian measuring the Temple |
We stated during the course of that chapter that according to the interpretation of the holy Fathers, Jerusalem, the holy city, stands for the Church. Saint John the Evangelist is mandated to exclude the city from this measurement. We previously stated that the measurement with the reed denotes God’s holy protection that was limited to the Temple, altar and the number of the active worshipers or members of the Church.
The rest of the city/church is excluded from God’s protection for it has been turned over to the nations. These are the once baptized clergy and laity, who loved and compromised with the spirit of the world and live as members of a secularized church.
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| St. Justin Popovich |
Father [Saint] Justin Popovich, who suffered greatly for the Faith, writes in his book: Man and God-Man, “Christianity can only be the salt of the earth with its God-human power, the salt which can preserve man from corruption and evil. A Christianity adulterated and mixed with various humanisms, becomes worthless salt, flavorless and bereft of its saltiness. Such salt, according to the inerrant words of the Savior, cannot be made useful again but will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. Every attempt and endeavor to equate Christianity with the spirit of this age, with the fleeting movements of some historical periods, with political parties and states, removes from Christianity its very special character which renders it that unique God-human religion of the world. It turns it into salt-less salt.”
Thus a church that serves the agenda of an atheist state is most certainly not the vine of God as Christ Himself says, ‘Every plant which my Heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up’ (Matthew 15:13).
This is the group of so-called “faithful” and the type of church that will be trampled by the nations for 42 months or three and a half years. Saint John is instructed not to measure or include this type of Church because it lost God’s protection.
If this “Living Church” of Russia was truly a Church then why was it persecuting the bishops, priests and laity? Why was it pushing them into the catacombs? There was the “higher church” and the “lower church”. If it was truly a free Church and not in the service of the atheist state, then why were there two of them? Why did the second church need to exist at all, why did one have to be underground? The very presence of the 2nd church clearly shows that there is a church in existence that has betrayed her mission.
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| Sergianist leaders of the "MP" |
[Lest anyone think that this phenomenon of a “higher” and “lower” church simultaneously existing at the same time and within the same territory ceased with the demise of the “Living Church” in the 1940’s and the creation of the "Moscow Patriarchate" in 1943, the Elder elsewhere states in a homily given on April 25th, 1982: “…during our days, in Orthodox lands like Russia, if the faithful people wish to celebrate a Divine Liturgy, a Liturgy in the true sense that would fulfill the needs of the faithful people, they celebrate in the forests and deserts … the Church has fled to the desert once again.” At this time the “higher church” in Russia was the "Moscow Patriarchate" – which bore many similarities to the “Living Church” and the “lower church”, which is praised by the Elder, was the Russian Orthodox Catacomb Church. This information can be found in Volume III of the Elder’s commentary on the Book of the Revelation, on page 205 - editor.]
Bishop Innocent unequivocally calls her a prostitute riding the red beast. The Lord prophesied, ‘And because wickedness (iniquity/lawlessness) is multiplied, most men’s (the love of the many) shall grow cold’ (Matthew 24:12). The love of the many certainly includes clergy and bishops who are no longer inspired by the love of Christ. Their love is compromised due to financial gain. People often betray everything for monetary gain.
Love of money does not hinder these descendants of Cain and Judas who betray the Faith and the Church. They are worthy descendants of Cain and Judas the Iscariot. Saint Paul further declares, ‘But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhumane, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people’ (2 Timothy 3:1-5). The Lord also spoke about such betrayal, ‘Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death’ (Matthew 10:21).
In the ancient Church of the persecutions, those who surrendered the holy Scriptures to the persecutors were also traitors. The betrayal at this level is most heinous and repulsive, especially when holy Scriptures were hand-written and extremely rare. Indeed, these people cast their lot with Judas.
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| St. Cyril of Jerusalem |
St. Cyril of Jerusalem records in his 15th catechism when commenting on the days of the Antichrist, ‘I am mostly concerned about the hatred between Christian brothers.’ By brothers, he means laity, clergy and even bishops. He was the victim of such persecution by the bishop of Jerusalem who ordained him. His ordaining bishop became an Arian at some point and harshly persecuted St. Cyril for maintaining his Orthodoxy.
Consequently, even among the low-ranking clergy we will have traitors to the Faith who will form and join the Prostitute church that collaborates unethically with the red beast or red dragon; that does not mean only atheism, but any secular state.
St. Kosmas the Aetolian, in his 56th prophecy states, “There will be a time when today’s harmony between lay-people and clergy will be absent.” In prophecy 57 he adds, “The clergy will exceed everyone in impiety.” In prophecy 108 he says, “There will be a time when Christians will rise up against each other.” This animosity between Christians does not refer to political parties or oppositions. The strife will be between those who have denied Christ and the Church, and those who have remained faithful.
Finally, the early Fathers, especially the ascetics were repeatedly asked about the state of the clergy of the later days. Their answer was that the clerics would not differ much from laypeople. They will be more concerned about their own self-interests. We see this in the saintly life of Fr. Demetrios Gagastathis, who lived here in Trikala. His amazing life story has been published in a very large book. The metropolitan of Kozani, who served the communist agenda at the time, persecuted this holy priest, trying to kill him. The bishop wanted to kill his own priest!
Based on the aforementioned, there is plenty of ground that portrays the secularized church as a worthy representative of the Prostitute of the Revelation along with Babylon and Rome. We did not come to this conclusion based on this very impressive booklet of Bishop Innocent alone, but because we are also eyewitnesses to this mystery of lawlessness in our day.
We have witnessed Orthodox bishops and priests totally agreeing and aligning themselves with secular authorities and ideologies of all types and colors, left, right, red, green, white, black, whatever party is on top. We readily see these opportunistic clerics flow along with these ideologies and betray the Church.
According to St. Cyril, this is a sign of the end of times, and that the Antichrist is approaching when it becomes so easy for clerics to betray the mother Church. May God have mercy on us!
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Part 2 (which contains various other quotes from Elder Athanasios on this subject matter):
1) “The Antichrist will appear to be a philanthropist … he will implement means of feeding the hungry and eliminating poverty.” (Volume 3, page 130)
2) “Before the False Prophet arrives, a state of affairs – not persons – that are projected as systems of global justice, philanthropy, love etc., will already be in place and all of them will be subservient to the Antichrist.” (Volume 3, page 131)
3) “My friends, as it is necessary to reinforce the position – that we have repeatedly brought to your attention about the Utopia of a social and political Christianity. I will repeat: Christianity cannot become a social system or an ethno-cultural political system. The Church seeks refuge in the desert.” (Volume III, page 223)
4) “Throughout the centuries, there have been many times that historic movements have scandalously appropriated Christianity to achieve their humanistic goals. Different interests and political parties that wish to align themselves and their philosophies with Christianity in order to propagate their agenda...
No we certainly do not need the conformation and compliance of the God-man Christ with the spirit of the times, but the conformity and compliance of the spirit of the times with the spirit of the eternity of Christ, of the God-humanity of Christ. This is the true and foremost mission of the Orthodox and Apostolic Church of Christ in the world. Only in this way will the Church be able to preserve the life- giving and irreplaceable personhood of the God-human Christ, which is of tremendous worth. In all the worlds (the visible, the invisible, and the ones to come) Christ is the supreme treasure and the salt of all measures and of all things.
So we cannot subordinate Christianity to humanistic levels… That which becomes adulterated will be destroyed, that which remains intact and true, not even the gates of hades will overcome it.” (Volume III, pages 101-103)