Man in the Face of Temptations

Salvation: Faith, Hope, Love

In the Orthodox Church, salvation is understood in a completely different way than in the Catholic or Protestant traditions. Unlike Protestants, we do not have a doctrine of "personal" salvation – in their understanding of this issue. Yes, the Scriptures speak of a person's personal responsibility to God: what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? or what ransom shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matt. 16:26), and Revelation, presenting a picture of the Judgment of God, says: ... and every man was judged according to his works (Rev. 20:13). But Protestants teach that a person does not need the Church or its hierarchy for salvation – nothing or anyone. According to Orthodox teaching, man is saved in the Church and only in it; in Orthodoxy, the salvation of the individual is not thought of outside the Church, outside of her conciliarity. In general, the idea of conciliarity permeates everything in Orthodoxy. Look, for example, what the Apostle said about the seemingly private family life of a person: "But if anyone does not take care of his own, and especially of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Tim. 5:8). It turns out that what we could call our "personal salvation" also depends on our relationships with our neighbors, on our relationships in the family. However, all the commandments of God regulate the relationship between man and man, or between man and God. After all, the Lord, as we said earlier, teaches us to pray with the words of the Lord's Prayer, and not "My Father" – here conciliar unity rises above the devilish egoism of an individual who is closed in on himself.On the other hand, the Catholic teaching about the special role of hierarchy in the matter of salvation is also unacceptable to the Orthodox. The clergy do not save the Church: they themselves are saved in it together with the rest of the people of God. And the only Savior of all is the Lord Jesus Christ.In the Orthodox understanding, the salvation of a person consists, as it were, of three stages. These are: redemption, sanctification, deification. These stages of spiritual growth correspond to three different virtues: faith, hope, and love. And also three different states of man in relation to God: slave, hireling, son.Let us consider these three stages in detail.The first stage is redemption. Redemption is effected by the blood of the Lamb of God, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that after the fall of our first parents, the Lord made them garments of leather (Gen. 3:21). According to the interpretation of the Holy Fathers, this means that then the first blood sacrifice was offered, the first sacrificial blood was shed, which foreshadowed the future redemption of mankind by the blood of the Son of God. And people dressed in the leather skins of sacrificed animals as a constant reminder, first of all, of the coming sacrifice. The stage of redemption corresponds to the biblical virtue – faith. And without faith it is impossible to please God; for it is necessary that he who comes to God should believe that He is (Heb. 11:6). So it is said in the Scriptures. And to this stage corresponds, in turn, the "social" position described in the Bible – the slave. The slave does not hope for a reward. A sinner who comes to God hopes only for mercy. It can be said that the entire Protestant world in its speculations stopped only at this level, although the Protestants did not really rise even to this level, but only moved further away from the mystery of redemption. For them, redemption through faith is the most important thing in salvation. "Only by faith can a man be saved," taught the heresiarch Martin Luther. (By the way, if we follow this vicious logic, then the demons should also be saved. After all, it is said in the Scriptures: "And the demons believe, and tremble" (James 2:19). The Bible says: "For the will of God is your sanctification" (1 Thess. 4:3). This stage corresponds to another biblical virtue – hope. Man does not simply believe, he hopes, he relies on the fruits of his faith, that faith which is the fulfillment of the hoped for and the assurance of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). This is, first of all, work, this is a way of life. A person here is a hired worker. Having attained a certain perfection in his active faith, he can already rely on what he has achieved through his prayers, fasting and good deeds. At this stage, the Catholic world stopped – and then only in its reasoning. In reality, the Catholics have not risen to either the first or the second stage.The third step in the matter of salvation is deification, a concept known only to Orthodox Eastern Christian theology. In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus Christ says: ... be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48). We can discuss with you what, for example, is the perfection of Moses: he did not steal, did not commit adultery, he was righteous, pious... But when are we called to the perfection of God?! What is it? We don't know what to say in response, but the Lord calls us to be like that.. The Bible says: God is love (1 John 4:8). Love is the mystical entry into the life of the Holy Trinity. Corresponding to this stage of salvation is no longer the "social" one, but the close, "family", kinship relationship of man to God – the son.Thus, salvation is the ascent in grace along the steps: slave, hireling, son; through virtues: faith, hope, love. Not a single Orthodox person can say about himself: "I am saved." Salvation is his life's work, but look at what is happening today. Imagine a huge, beautiful palace in which many people live. A disaster happened, the palace collapsed. And then a team of hack restorers appears, offering to restore it quickly and efficiently. These restorers are Protestants or Catholics who come to us with a "mission of salvation", but have no idea what and how to do. Simple-minded people trust them, but instead of a palace they build a primitive shack and say: "Ready, restored!" We have never understood salvation as it is taught at the Protestant (rationalist) or Catholic (scholastic) levels. Salvation is not only the rejection of drunkenness and drugs, external participation in the life of the parish, prayers, and fasting. Salvation is much more than that. We have heard what the first man was like before the Fall, to what heights the Lord called him, and we see how low he fell. But we also know that there is a second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45; 47-49) – the Lord Jesus Christ; we know why the Son of God came into this world. He came to revive humanity, to reveal the beginning of a new life, to give us a new nature. He came to take us to heaven. We all know, to one degree or another, that we are in need of grace-filled salvation. Each of us feels and realizes the need for change. With every cell of his body, a person feels that he needs changes. Our current state does not suit anyone! And even if someone should say that I am rich, have become rich, and have need of nothing, then it is the work of the Church to show that such a person is miserable and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (Rev. 3:17). The Word of God teaches us: Wherefore, as sin entered into the world by one man, and death by sin, so death passed on to all men, because in him all sinned (Rom. 5:12). Yes, we did all die in Adam, but by the grace of God, we must be resurrected in Christ!

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And the devil, in his attempts to usurp the power of God, wriggles in different aspects of his fallen existence, and from the depths of hell, like silt from the bottom of the river, ancient and new temptations arise: humanism, feminism, falsely named knowledge, Freemasonry, democracy, communism, fascism, secularization, heresies, schisms... But how can it harm us, if together with the Psalmist David we exclaim: "If I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; Thy rod and Thy staff – they give me rest (Psalm 22:4). The Word of God is the rod that guides us to eternal life. Only the word of the Creator is a true lamp, shining in a dark place, until the day begins to dawn and the morning star rises in our hearts (2 Pet. 1:19).The holy Patriarch Hermogenes, seized by the Latins, who intended to starve him to death for his firm stand in the Orthodox faith, instructed his flock: "I bless all to die for Orthodoxy!" Orthodox people should remember this great testament of the Patriarch more often. And besides, when thinking about the fall of our first parents, we must as often as possible bring to mind the words of the holy king and prophet David, the words addressed to God: Try me, O God, and know my heart; test me, and know my thoughts; and see if I am not on a dangerous path, and direct me to the eternal path (Psalm 138:23-24).

Discourse on the Book of the Holy Prophet of God Daniel

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Part 1

I want to talk to you about the book of the prophet Daniel, a book that contains amazing predictions about ancient and future kingdoms and an account of the lives of some of God's prophets. This book also speaks of the Kingdom of Christ and of the last days of human history, namely, of the battle of the faithful with the universal spiritual "Babylon" of sin. May God's blessing not leave us throughout this conversation. Holy Prophet of God Daniel, pray to God for us!

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The book of the prophet Daniel begins with the words: In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered into his hand Jehoiakim king of Judah, and a part of the vessels of the house of God, and he sent them into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and brought these vessels into the treasury of his god (Dan. 1:1-2).Here we see what a tragedy Israel experienced in the year 605 before the birth of Christ, when in the days of Jehoiakim, in the third year of the reign of this king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and, as the Bible says, besieged that city. Many Israelites were taken captive, many of them were turned into slaves and sent to Babylon to fulfill the will of the pagan rulers, the pagan king. Why did such a tragedy occur in the life of the Jewish people? Why does it sometimes happen in the lives of believers that pagans, heretics, and even worse – atheists begin to rule and rule them? Why does the Lord allow this? After all, it is directly said here that the Lord delivered into his hand, that is, into the hand of the king of Babylon... Why does the Lord sometimes give His people into the hands of those stewards who have nothing to do with our holy faith? This is because by their sins believers grieve God, and He, who has been so merciful and has endured their evil deeds for so long, finally sends upon them evil and stupid rulers, pagan rulers, heretical and godless, to enslave His people. The Lord allows such disasters so that people who find themselves in this slavery may remember their Creator and repent and pray, turning to the One Lord God, with all heartfelt sincerity and sincerity. And this Babylonian captivity, which the people of Israel endured for more than 70 years, is very similar to the "Babylonian captivity" that we are still experiencing: after all, from February 1917 to the present time, godless rulers have stood over us, and there are no Orthodox monarchs, tsars, who would protect us and preserve the holy Orthodox faith, who would save the Russian people from all dangers. This text from Daniel is especially understandable to us because we live in a very similar time period to the one described in this book. True, the situation of the ancient Israelites was even worse than ours: they were all driven from their native land and taken to the land of Babylon, where they were made slaves. In Moscow, they buy apartments from native Muscovites and relocate them to who knows where, and some even to the grave. A "Law on Land" is being prepared, according to which almost all the best lands of Russia will be bought and sold, and will be at the mercy of usurers and overseas bankers. We live in a time when an Orthodox person does not feel like a master here, in his native land; He looks around with apprehension: so as not to offend anyone, because there are many different people of other faiths and non-Russians, who in every possible way try to oppress us, and some of them openly mock our traditions and rituals. They laugh in their faces, committing crimes that make the hairs on their heads stand on end [1]. In ancient times, when Russia was not yet enlightened by the light of the Christian faith, the Kiev prince Oleg went on a campaign against Tsargrad only because Russian merchants were not allowed to wash in the bathhouse there. Offended by this circumstance, Prince Oleg declared war on the Greeks and, having won it, forced them to pay tribute and nailed his shield to the gates of Tsargrad. Now our brothers and sisters are being killed, Russian women and children are being raped. This is happening in many countries of the so-called "near abroad". This is happening now in Moscow! And the government is silent, the authorities are silent, because there is no monarch, no tsar, no Orthodox ruler who would protect the Christian people from the temptations of the Livonian and Hagaritan, from the temptations of the godless and pagan.In the last century, the Russians began a liberation movement in the Balkans in order to save our brothers of the same faith and blood – the Bulgarians and Serbs – from the Turkish yoke. And we cannot forget it. A huge number of Russian soldiers died then, and this was indeed a feat in the name of the triumph of Orthodoxy, because edinoverie was the only reason for the Russian monarch and for all our people to forget about a calm, peaceful life and decide on a military campaign. And now, when the same coreligionists and consanguineous brothers of our Serbs are being bombed from American planes, caught in their own country, we are silent, as if this is how it should be. I have already said once that when there was a civil war, no one wanted to accept Russian emigrants, because there were so many of them – more than two million. And only Serbia turned out to be the only country that accepted about a million Russian refugees: the Serbs looked at us as their own, at the Orthodox, at the Slavs. And each gymnasium was squeezed out so that Russian children had a place to study. Every plant and factory was squeezed out so that Russian men and women could earn their bread somewhere. Then they helped us... And today we do not help our Serbian brothers who defended us. Although they have been our "eternal" allies for centuries, we are now ignoring their woes. Now it is not the Serbs, but we who have forgotten that they are our brothers, of the same faith and of the same blood.Expulsions, invasions of the godless, pagans always befall the people of God when we ourselves become infidels. We do not care about those Russian brothers and sisters who are in the "near abroad" as hostages: there they are the last to be allowed to get water, to bread, there they are thrown out of the queues and shouted: "You Russians, go to your Moscow!" And in the meantime, it is not so easy to go to Moscow. How to sell the housing you leave if you are not allowed to do this? How to buy a ticket if it is not sold? I personally know one man who told me how he was "evicted" from Baku. Every day, early in the morning, they knocked on his window with sticks and shouted: "Haven't you left yet"? Then there was the arson of his balcony, the beating of his child, threats to his wife. This man said that the cup of his patience overflowed when his elderly mother was thrown out of the bread queue just because she was Russian, Orthodox.When I give such examples from modern life, I do not want to arouse a feeling of anger in anyone. No! No! And once again – no! I want to awaken a sense of compassion. I remind you that the Bible says: learn to do good, seek righteousness, save the oppressed, defend the fatherless, intercede for the widow (Isaiah 1:17). And in another place we read: "Therefore, while there is time, let us do good to all, and especially to those who are in the faith (Gal. 6:10). If you want to do good, talk to the refugees who fill the train stations. These are unfortunate people who were expelled only because they are Russians. They need your help, but if you can't help them, then at least pray for them. They rushed here, to Russia, and no one needs them here: here others are in charge, others enter our apartments, our lands, enterprises, our homes. It is not a question of a difference in blood – that would not be so significant, not so important – it is a point of the fact that the heterodox, people who do not belong to our faith, allow themselves to rule over the people of God, over the Russian people. Let us remember more often how the very word of God teaches us to treat people of other faiths, to people who are hostile to Orthodoxy. The Apostle of Love, John the Theologian, writes in his epistle: Whosoever transgresseth the teaching of Christ, and does not abide in it, hath not God; he who abides in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son. Whoever comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not greet him. For he who welcomes him participates in his evil deeds (2 John 1:9-11).And so, in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, the captivity of the people of Israel took place, and thousands of Jews found themselves in captivity, among the Gentiles. The Babylonian Empire was huge and powerful. It was a state where many gods were worshipped for many centuries. Formed for thousands of years in Mesopotamia, these cults reached their apogee, the fullness of their development by the days of Nebuchadnezzar. Among the captives who were taken away from the land of Israel were four boys: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah – believers, pious youths. Because their appearance was very attractive (they were handsome youths, strong and strong), king Nebuchadnezzar took them to his palace to grow up, receive education and upbringing, and then become his servants. who have no bodily defect, handsome in appearance, and understanding of all science, and understanding of science, and clever and fit to serve in the palaces of kings, and that He may teach them books and the language of the Chaldeans (Dan. 1:3-4). The king gives orders to select not just youths, not just handsome in appearance, not just understanding, understanding science, but such that they are of royal and princely lineage, so that they have a glorious origin, in order to later turn them into Chaldeans, into "inhabitants of Babylon", who would be able to represent the interests of the pagans among the Israelites themselves. But in order to use these youths in their far-reaching interests, the Babylonians decided to re-educate, remake and change them.And the chief of the eunuchs renamed them Belshazzar, Ananias Shadrach, Mishael Meshach and Azariah Abednego (Dan. 1:7). Recently, I visited a family that was very proud that their child was in his fourth year of studying abroad. When I began to talk to this boy, it turned out that he spoke Russian with an accent (!), thought about money, about business, about what place he would take in the society of the "new Russians". And this is no longer a Russian child: he was disfigured by this alien, unorthodox upbringing, the pernicious spirit of the Catholic and Protestant, or rather, pagan West.In the Book of Leviticus we read: "Of thy children thou shalt not give to the service of Molech, neither shall thou dishonor the name of thy God. I am the Lord (18:21). Moloch is a vile idol of fire, to which small children were sacrificed. Sometimes they were only led through the "Molochs" with fire (4 Kings 23:10). So in our country, until recently, almost all children were dragged through the worship of the "eternal flame". Under the guise of honoring the memory of the fallen soldiers, this pagan cult was revived, which had nothing in common with the Christian commemoration of the fallen. And many worshipped this "eternal fire," very many. But we, the Orthodox, know what "eternal fire" is – eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25:41). From the Scriptures we know that demons dwell in idols, and therefore those people who worshipped foreign gods offered sacrifices to demons, and not to God, to gods whom they did not know, to new gods that came from neighbors and of which our fathers did not think (Deuteronomy 32:17). And now our overseas "neighbors" from the East and West also want Russian children to worship alien gods and offer sacrifices to demons. But can we give our children to Moloch, this spirit of corruption? The new "gods" of today's world are "needle-addicted" prodigal rock "musicians", movie stars, sex, drugs, computer games, and video industry, alcohol, gambling and so on and so forth. What does rock and pop music do to young people, in its metamorphoses showing the world more and more demonic grimaces of musical buffoonery? Modern music styles such as "techno", "rave", "trance", "heavy metal" and others – plunge the consciousness of our children deeper and deeper into the sensual jungle of obscene sounds that cripple their consciousness and subconscious. About modern youth idols we can say in the words of the lawgiver Moses: whatsoever the Lord abhors, whatsoever He hates, they do unto their gods (Deuteronomy 12:31). Our children are indeed in a very dangerous situation, and the book of Daniel can tell us what they must be like in order to successfully resist the pagan spirit of "modern Babylon." The Holy Scriptures say that the Lord has appointed predestined times and boundaries for all nations on all the face of the earth (Acts 17:26). Consequently, the intrusion of anyone into foreign lands and the brazen exaltation of the native population seems to be a crime and a sin in the light of Biblical Revelation. Whatever kind of indigenous population a person finds himself with, he must take into account his interests and respect his traditions. ^

Part 2

And this is what we see: these four boys were placed among other youths and youths who were brought up at the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar. In this palace, the royal youths were taken care of: they were dressed in beautiful clothes, fed, they were given the most exquisite dishes, wines, everything was done to make them healthy, strong and beautiful, to receive a brilliant upbringing. But a very serious problem arose with the youths of Israel: they refused to eat the food from the king's table, which the pagans tried to impose on them, contrary to the Law of the Lord: the Spirit of Christ is in them... He foretold (1 Pet. 1:11) – to them, the people of the Old Testament – that this same kind is expelled only by prayer and fasting (Matt. 17:21). And they tried not to have a common meal with the pagans, since a common feast ends for many in common sins and drunken possession, and abstinence in food is the mother of all virtues. The prophet Hosea speaks of ungodly feasts: "They shall eat, and shall not be satisfied; they will commit fornication, and they will not multiply; for they have forsaken the service of the Lord. Fornication, wine, and drink took possession of their hearts (Hos. 4:10-11). But the pagans tried to somehow explain, to substantiate why the youths should eat royal food, with which they were afraid to defile themselves, to drink wine; They said, "Otherwise the young men will be thin, their faces will be thin; they will be ugly, unhealthy; They will study poorly. The world always finds excuses for its sins; he finds them because he seeks them, and he seeks them because people loved darkness more than light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:19). A table filled with dishes, on which meat is smoking, salads smell of freshness and wine foams, pleases the eye of all the cheerful company gathered for the feast. But every time we are invited to such a "feast of the belly", we must ask ourselves: why and for what purpose should I sit down at this table? What attracts me most here?Never be afraid to say the word NO. The holy youths Daniel, Ananias, Mishael, and Azariah were not afraid to speak this word. Many, especially young Christians, out of a sense of false modesty, do not dare to refuse, in particular, to those whom it is indecent for young believers to approach. We must understand that our world is divided into friends and foes, and whether we want to notice it or not, this is exactly how it is. The holy youths we read about in the book of Daniel not only understood this, but lived by it.One teenager named Michael, at the age of 14, was invited to a party by his classmate. This boy had always dreamed of becoming a priest. But after one such evening, spent in the company of an unbelieving "maiden," he lost the right to his dream, for there was a canonical obstacle to his ordination... Sin sometimes irreparably cripples our lives. That is why we must flee from sin, fight against it, like the righteous Joseph (Gen. 39:12), or the pious Phinehas (Num. 25:7-8). Know how to put up a barrier to lawlessness by a resolute refusal. And no matter what, even the most pious, or "spiritual garments" sin wears, be able to say NO to temptation. We all need to remember the admonition of the Most Wise One more often: My son! if sinners persuade you, do not consent; If they say, 'Come with us...' – My son! Go not on the way with them, keep thy foot from their path" (Proverbs 1:10-15).Very often, even now, when modern pagans try to somehow motivate why our Orthodox children do not need to fast, they give the following arguments in favor of their point of view: they say that children need to grow, be strong, strong, that they have puberty, that they study and, therefore, they must memorize a lot, so they need to consume as much protein, fats, and various sophisticated foods, the most delicious and tasty.And then Daniel made a proposal to Amelsar, whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned to the youths: "Make an experiment on your servants for ten days; let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink; and then let our faces appear before thee, and the faces of those youths who eat the king's food, and then do unto thy servants as thou shalt see (Dan. 1:12-13).The lad Daniel was very wise; he understood that if for the glory of God, in fulfillment of the Lord's commandments, people abstain from some food, then the Lord will take care of the health of these people. And Daniel proposed to the eunuch: "Allow us not to eat your flesh for ten days, and we will not eat the forbidden things; Allow us to eat only vegetables and drink only water for ten days, and then bring us, look at our faces and the faces of those who gorge themselves on meat, compare, and you will see what a difference there is between us. And the eunuch obeyed them in this, and tried the youths for ten days. And at the end of ten days, – it is said in the Scriptures, – their faces, those who fasted – turned out to be more beautiful, and their bodies were fuller than all those youths who ate the king's food. Then Amelsar took their food and wine to drink and gave them vegetables (Dan. 1:15-16). Thus the Lord shamed this eunuch and showed him that if people do something for the sake of God, then God does not abandon them.If we do something in the name of God, we must believe that the Lord will not abandon us, that the merciful Lord will take care of our health, our ailments and infirmities. However, our very infirmities can be pleasing to God. The Apostle Paul writes: But the Lord said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness. And therefore I will be much more willing to boast of my infirmities, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me (2 Corinthians 12:9).When you are called to some service in the Church and it seems to you that you do not have enough strength, not enough health, – know that if the Lord calls you to this or that field, then it means that He has already taken care of it. so that you may be able to carry out your obedience properly and not thereby do yourself any harm. But, however, if we lose our very lives on the paths of serving the Lord, then what of it? What can be higher than sacrificing everything for the sake of our God? It is said in the Scriptures: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). And even more so – for their Creator and Lord.But here we read further the book of Daniel: "And God gave to these four youths knowledge and understanding of every book and wisdom" (Dan. 1:17). Perhaps this is why our children study so poorly, because they are so incapable of mastering the "wisdom of books" that they do not observe the fasts with us. Moreover, for our sons and daughters, fasting should be not only abstinence from non-essential food, but also abstinence from spectacles, dances, wild music and empty communication with unbelieving peers. Perhaps we ourselves have doomed our children to such a terrible vegetation, when they, constantly breaking the holy fasts or observing them incorrectly, pray little, which is why they are not given either the knowledge or the understanding of every book and wisdom that was given to Daniel, Ananias, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel received from the Lord the gift of unraveling dreams and interpreting various visions that may occur in the life of this or that person. And the king spoke to them, and of all the youths there was not found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and they began to serve before the king. And in every matter of wise understanding, whatever the king asked them, he found them ten times higher than all the mystics and magi who were in all his kingdom. And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus (Dan. 1:18-21).Do you see how the Lord blesses the youths who hold fast to the true faith? They should pray at home with you and on their own. The only indulgence is allowed to sick children, but even in this case it is always necessary to take a blessing from the priest. A normal state for a child is when he perceives the breaking of the fast and the reduction of the prayer rule as a sin and confesses it. Your own good example should inspire him to spiritual work. And it is absolutely impermissible to "punish" a child with prayers or the reading of holy books. If your child identifies punishment with religious life, then, sooner or later, he will experience an aversion to both spiritual reading and prayer itself. On the contrary, the punishment should be a ban on the child's reading of the Holy Scriptures in the eccentric state in which he is. Not to let him into the Temple until he is reconciled with the younger ones and asks forgiveness from the elders – this is the most terrible punishment, this is where he must experience fear... And it is possible to allow him to read prayers only when, as it is said at the beginning of the canon, "all feelings are calmed." You must remember that you will not always be with your children, stand over them and teach them, sooner or later there will be a separation; Your main task is to teach your child independence in religious life; religion should really become for him that connection with God, without which he would not be able to imagine his life.And so these youths are close to King Nebuchadnezzar.But how dangerous it is to be close to the powerful of this world! The children were in the zone of attention of the king, his servants and dining companions. Most of all, we should worry about those who have become the object of attention from pagans, heretics and sinners. The world of sin watches especially closely at the young, at the youngest, it wants to make them its victim. And in this exaltation of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, a trap was already being prepared for them, a cunningly disguised trap.Thus, we must once and for all understand for ourselves that the devil is always looking for destruction for us, he walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8). Twenty-four hours a day, the evil one is on the lookout for us: he has a tremendous experience of seduction, and in this world there is a huge arsenal of temptations that are ready to fall on us at any moment. But many, especially young people, are not at all ready for this fight. How can they survive in such a struggle? But the word of God can prompt a young Christian where the danger of sin is and where his weak point is. The Apostle Paul instructed the young servant of the Church, Timothy, with the words: "Flee from youthful lusts, but hold fast to righteousness, faith, love, and peace with all those who call on the Lord from a pure heart" (2 Tim. 2:22). Youthful lust is all foolish and harmful lust (1 Tim. 6:9). In youth, a person has not yet recognized the perniciousness of sin and does it playfully; Only with the passage of years, as a consequence of constancy in confession, comes a deep understanding of what has been done, a true contrition for the falls. To flee from youthful lusts means to take the problem of sin seriously. There are no "great" and "small" sins. It is said in the Scriptures: Whoever keeps the whole law and sins in one thing becomes guilty of everything. For he who said, Thou shalt not commit adultery, also said, Thou shalt not kill; therefore, if you do not commit adultery, but kill, then you are also a transgressor of the law (James 2:10-11). That is, there are no "trifles" in the spiritual life. Therefore, speaking of youthful temptations, St. John Chrysostom sees in them also those fornicatory vices that accompany a certain age. We will name only the most common of them.Hand-blowing (masturbation) is the devil's scourge of youth! This sin is spoken of in the Bible as a serious obstacle on the way to the Kingdom of Heaven: "Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals... – They shall not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). The system of "sex education", which is now openly propagandized in various schools in Russia, directly incites teenagers to commit this terrible sin. It is known from the Scriptures that Onan (who gave one of the names of this vice by his name) angered God by pouring [seed] on the earth; then we read: Evil was in the eyes of the Lord that which he did; and He killed him also (Gen. 38:9-10). This sin offends the Creator, who gave life-giving power to male seed. St. John Chrysostom in his "Discourses on the Epistle to the Romans" calls such a sin "the unlawful squandering of seed." For many young people, it ends in complete or partial male impotence (impotence). Truly, as we can read in the Apostle Paul, every sin that a person commits is outside the body, and the fornicator sins against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:18). The first experience of communication with the female sex, if it is not based on the order established by the commandments of the Creator, may turn out to be the beginning of the fall. Scripture says that we should treat women with discreetness. as with a weaker vessel, giving them honor, as co-heirs of grace-filled life, so that we may not be hindered in prayer (1 Pet. 3:7). It turns out that improper and rude treatment of a maiden or a woman can turn into an obstacle for a believer in his very prayer life. Homosexuality is a sin that, as we can read about in the book of Genesis, infects not only the old, but also the young (Gen. 19:4). The law of Moses implied severe punishment for it. If a man lie with a man as with a woman, then both of them have committed an abomination: let them be put to death, their blood be on them (Lev. 20:13). In the Babylonian kingdom this sin was very widespread and posed a serious danger to all believing youths and youths. But even today its danger is no less. Legalized in our time, the sin of sodomy has turned into a lucrative craft in Russia for vile pimps who sell the bodies of Russian boys, depriving them of the right to a normal life. A particularly large number of children engaged in prostitution fall on the so-called "homeless", who are homeless only for the state, and perverts have long "looked at", examined and "received" them. Christian youth should know what danger homosexuals pose to them – they encroach on their chastity. And believing young men should resolutely resist this sin, no matter who and wherever invites them to enter into homosexual relations. The Apostle Paul admonished the faithful, speaking of the danger of debauchery penetrating into the life of Christian communities: "I have written to you not to associate with one who, calling himself a brother, remains a fornicator, or a covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or a predator; with such a one he cannot even eat together (1 Cor. 5:11). Here, in this text, we also see the danger posed by eating together with those "Christians" who did not abandon their dissolute way of life when they came to the Church; The Apostle calls not even to eat with such people. And it is all the more dangerous to drink wine with the depraved, for the word of God teaches us: Do not look at wine, how it reddens, how it sparkles in the cup, how it is nourished evenly: afterwards, like a serpent, it bites, and bites like an adder; thy eyes shall look upon strange wives, and thy heart shall speak lewdness (Proverbs 23:31-33).The Scriptures also say: "And save others with fear, snatching them out of the fire, but rebuke them with fear, abhorring even the garments which are defiled by the flesh" (Jude 1:23). That is, when we denounce sinners who have defiled their flesh with fornication, we must try not to touch even their clothes – so pernicious, so "contagious" is this vice. Speaking of homosexuality, St. John Chrysostom warns: "In order for you to understand how great this sin is, (imagine the following): if someone came to you and declared that he would make you a dog out of a man, would you not run away from him, as from the most harmful person? But now you have made yourself out of a man, not a dog, but an animal more contemptible than a dog: it is still fit for something. But he who indulges in debauchery is good for nothing." The book of Deuteronomy forbids accepting donations from perverts to the House of the Lord, calling homosexuals dogs: "Thou shalt not bring the wages of a harlot or the price of a dog into the house of the Lord thy God, for both are an abomination before the Lord thy God" (Deuteronomy 23:18). Christ has the power to change your masculine way of life, provided that you hate this vice and resolutely oppose it. In the Epistle to the Corinthians, in that part of it where sodomy is spoken of along with other sins, we further find: And such were some of you; but they were washed, but sanctified, but were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God (1 Corinthians 6:11). There are a variety of forms of this vice, or rather, varieties of suicide. Children smell glue, various oils, oil products. A very common type of drug addiction is when they take various stimulant pills, sleeping pills in large doses, and the like. Outright types of drug addiction consist in taking opium, hashish, poppy straw extract and various synthetic drugs. Modern "Babylon" is sophisticated in various methods of stupefying with the subsequent slow killing of a person – it is no coincidence that drugs are called the "white death". A drug addict is guilty before the Creator as a suicide. And suicide is equated in the Scriptures with the sin of resisting God: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will punish him: for the temple of God is holy; but you are this temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).But, despite the greatest temptations and sins of the universal Babylon, the hope for salvation should not leave the heart of even the most inveterate sinner. God can make wonderful changes in the lives of each of us. In the Book of the Prophet Isaiah we read: Then come, and let us reason, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; if they be red as crimson, they shall be as white as wool (Isaiah 1:18).The change that God produces in the soul of man can only be compared with BIRTH. And to this birth from above the Lord calls each of us with the words: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). He says everything, calling on everyone (and therefore on you), for in Him alone is the hope of salvation for all creation.Thus, the devil is really looking for how to destroy us all twenty-four hours a day. But our God – He does not slumber and does not sleep, protecting and protecting us. He is our only SAVIOR, Who extracts human souls from the dark depths of the universal "Babylon", from the abysses of its turbidity and abomination. And in the Psalter of the holy king and prophet David we find a psalm that can console us not only in the days, but also in the hours of our lives: