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| St. Philaret of NY |
Saint Philaret of NY declares: "If the Truth does not interest a man, if it is not dear to him then, in such a case, he has no real Christian revulsion before falsehood. That is why falsehood now overflows everywhere. We live in a kind of kingdom of falsehood..."
At times, upon reading certain lying statements made by Orthodox Christians, and alas, even those of some Bishops and priests, we may begin to believe that this "kingdom of falsehood" has penetrated even into the Church. However, the Church can NEVER lie!
Thus we read in the Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs (1848): "We confess with no doubts, as a firm truth, that the Catholic Church cannot make mistakes or fall into error and express lies instead of truth..."
From this we learn that any lying statement made by any Orthodox Christian, regardless of their position, is not "of the Church" - rather it is from themselves, or firstly from the "father of lies" who taught them to lie in the name of Christ!
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| Vladyka Averky of Jordanville |
Vladyka Averky of Jordanville warns us that: "Lies are inadmissible in the mouths of the ministers of the Church of Christ, and especially, of course, it is intolerable in the mouths of high hierarchs who must always proclaim the one Truth on behalf of the entire Church..."
However, this proclamation of Truth is not always offered by every Orthodox Bishop, priest, or layperson - by some it is never offered in its fullness at all - but is replaced with a lie.
Concerning this a Catacomb document of the late 1920s states: "Can the Church, which is the 'pillar and ground of the truth,' can she and her hierarchy, under any circumstances and for any purpose, embark on the path of lies and man-pleasing? No, for this is absolutely forbidden to her by the Word of God...
Everything that is said on behalf of the Church must breathe the truth of Christ, proceed from it, be in accordance with it, and any deviation from the truth, no matter for what reasons it may be justified, is a spit on the Most Pure Face of Christ, and for the Church, in the final analysis, it always turns out to be shameful and harmful... shameful and harmful because there is no truth in it, and it is all full of lies, human considerations and calculations."
The consequences of such a "shameful and harmful" lying in the name of the Church, or concerning the Church from within her, are quite clearly revealed in the two quotes below:
1) Saint Philaret of NY again declares: "In these days of vacillation, confusion of thought and corruption, we confess the true teaching of the Church regardless of the opinions held by those who might hear us and disregarding the skepticism and faithlessness of our environment.
If, for the sake of conforming to the errors of the times, we would suppress the truth or yet profess distorted doctrines to please the world, we would in fact be offering stones instead of bread. And the higher the position of one who would act in this way, the more profound the temptation and the more serious the consequences."
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| St. Damascene of Glukhov |
2) And St. Damascene, Bishop of Glukhov, writes: "Can anyone, in the name of the Church, from the height of the ambon, proclaim something that he could not swear to be the complete truth?
What will those who have come to the Church say? What will they feel when, even from there, from the height of the last refuge of righteousness rejected by the world, from the height of the ambon, there sound words of hypocrisy, of man-pleasing and slander? Will it not seem that falsehood is achieving its final victory over the world, and that there, in the place where the image of Incarnate Truth flashed for them with the Unwaning Light, there now laughs in a disgusting grimace the mask of the father of lies?...
There will be more than one heart that on hearing the words of untruth within the walls of the church will shake in its faith and perhaps be wounded in its most secret sanctuary; it will tear itself away from the Church that has deceived it [for they erringly attribute this to the Church] and will remain outside her walls.
The silence of thousands will utter a terrible word to the very heart of the people, wounding their much-suffering soul, and the rumor will spread to all the ends of the earth that the Kingdom of Christ has become the kingdom of the beast. What a pitiful and unworthy existence. Truly it is better to die than to live in this way!"
In closing, all lies (including heresies - which are lies) offered in the name of the Church or by those who represent the Church: lead their offerors (and often followers) to the eternal fire, scandalize the faithful and can cause the weak to leave the Church, keep many non-Orthodox from joining the Church, cause the Church of Christ to be blasphemed, are equivalent to spitting in the face of Christ, and offer the impression that the Church is no different than the "kingdom of falsehood" which is destroying this fallen world! May we all repent!
On a final note: It should go without saying that no Orthodox Christian is bound to accept, obey, or base their actions upon any lie - regardless of the position of those who may spew it forth. A properly "canonical" or "officially" sanctioned lie still leads to the depths of hell and is NOT of the Church.