Part 2

In the Revelation of John the Theologian it is said about the end times, that then a harlot will arise, on whose forehead it is written: "Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth" (Rev. 17:5). This is a woman who has many men. The of Babylon is an attempt to unite all politicians into one, and different state interests into one international sin. Now they want to organize such a heaping sin in Europe: the unification of Europe is taking place. Then they will try to unite the whole world – and unite it by the coming of the Antichrist! Then all politics will be mixed, all borders will be destroyed, so that by the time the Antichrist comes, his power will be ubiquitous.But you and I, brothers and sisters, must avoid this spiritual fornication. You and I should not participate in any political rallies, demonstrations, because there are different people speaking there, sometimes those who are hostile to Christianity. Sometimes we are told: "There will be a patriotic meeting where all the patriots will gather!" Once I went to see what kind of meeting of "patriots" it was and also fell into spiritual fornication! How did it happen? I began to listen to their reports. And what did I hear? A man comes out and says loudly: "The true religion is Slavic paganism; Our ancestors were pagans, and the Jews made them Christians!" And these words entered into me, through my ears into my heart; I felt that this was spiritual fornication, and I quickly left this meeting.We must fight for our spiritual chastity, brothers and sisters! So that no pagan fables, no communist and democratic contagion would stick to us, so that we would be really alien to these political, pseudo-patriotic speculations. Because you and I have chosen God's authority over us! And we want to serve only Him, because we are His people and we have no alternative but the life of the Church.His Holiness the Patriarch often calls on the Orthodox not to enter into political skirmishes, does not bless priests to participate in modern politics – to become deputies or someone else, precisely because this is a world of fornication. And the Patriarch is our common Holy Father, who does not want his children to follow the path of fornication! We may not go to the rally, but we can turn on the wrong channel by mistake: we wanted to watch an Orthodox program (now there are good Orthodox programs), but we got to see a speech by Zyuganov or Zhirinovsky! And fornication begins – spiritual fornication, political fornication... Even politicians themselves often admit that politics is prostitution. So, brothers and sisters, let's make it clear that we will have nothing to do with the world of politics; we choose only the authority of the Lord over us. We had already chosen this power of the Lord over us when we were baptized, when we renounced the devil, his evil deeds, his angels, and his pride; when we were united to Christ in Holy Baptism. Therefore, let us try not to get involved with the world, not to be friends with it, because, as we have read, friendship with the world is enmity against God. We want to be with the Lord in peace, and this peace – the peace of God and with God – was brought to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, having cleansed our souls on the Cross of Golgotha with His precious Blood. (James 4:5).As we now know, brothers and sisters, our Lord is very jealous. And we cannot serve God and mammon at the same time—we cannot serve the Church and the world of modern politics together. We cannot sit on two chairs at once – to combine the path of righteousness and the path of sin.The Lord will forgive a Christian some of his sinful falls, if it happened unexpectedly, even involuntarily, and then the person repented. But He will treat us very zealously if we depart from His truth, if we, succumbing to various harmful (I would even say stinking) currents of fallen human thought, cease to defend the interests of His Holy Church. Our children go to school – I advise you to carefully look through their textbooks – are there any blasphemous statements? I will give one example here. The well-known sectarian Korean Moon not so long ago published a textbook for children called "My World and Me". And this rather voluminous textbook began to be distributed in all Russian schools! Many of our children studied for several years using this sectarian textbook! They were purposefully implanted with false ideas about God, about the Church, about the Holy Scriptures! Brothers and sisters, you must carefully consider how and what your children and grandchildren are taught, this is your duty.Recently I talked with a mathematician friend who told me that somewhere in the 70s and 80s, textbooks on mathematics were published, compiled in such a way that it was almost impossible to study with them! Then a special government commission found out what kind of textbooks they were, why they were compiled this way. They began to look for authors-compilers, but it turned out that all of them had already left for their historical homeland, Israel. We began to investigate the situation further, and it turned out that it was a real sabotage: if one generation of Russians stops studying mathematics, then in a few years the overall scientific potential in the country will decrease, and this is already of military-strategic importance! How? Right from childhood, promoting homosexuality, perversions, masturbation, contraceptives! In many schools, the so-called sex education has already been introduced: a teacher comes to the classroom with a whole box of rubber products, distributes them to children and teaches them how to use them correctly. And our girls and boys sit and study: they puff up, play... But this is the spirit of fornication, brothers and sisters! Parents should know about this, and the Church should sound the alarm! There has already been a statement by the Holy Synod about the need to stop the program of so-called sex education, because it is aimed precisely at reducing not only the population in general, but so that there are fewer Orthodox Christians in Russia! And the Lord is jealous, He will ask us for our children, for our grandchildren, for our loved ones: did we follow how they learned and what? Sometimes we do not even watch ourselves, our own thoughts. But in the spiritual life there are no trifles! That is why it is said: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).If we realize God's zeal and begin to pull ourselves up spiritually, if we do not mix with the world of politics, with the world of fornication, if we distance ourselves from all kinds of heresies and errors, then God's blessing comes to us, to our families and our loved ones. That is why it is said: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. That is, we need to humble ourselves before God's commandments. Yes, they are strict, but if we do not humble ourselves before them—before their strength, their strength and might—if we do not bow down before the holiness of the Creator's commandments—who will we serve? She sent her grandson to school, where a rather strange system of education was adopted. The teacher painted the whole class with huge five-pointed stars. Inside each star there is an inscription: "idol". On the edges of these stars, he put photographs of his students, suggesting to each of them that he should become an idol for the others. This teacher developed in children some vulgarity, some strange moods. And the woman was terrified: "What is my grandson being taught, what is it?!" At first, she turned to her daughter: "Where did you send your son?" But the daughter did not delve into anything: "Well, this is probably such a modern system of education..."A child is indoctrinated: "You must become an idol for everyone, and in order to become one, you must have other idols yourself!" The little idol will live for himself, the main holiday in his life will be his own birthday: not Christmas, not Easter, but a personal birthday! But this is a direct path to Satanism – when everything is turned upside down, when selfishness is welcomed, and pride is encouraged. We must be humble, we must be servants of the Lord. And only this path – humility, recognition of one's slavery to the Creator – will be the path of grace, the path of communion with the Lord. resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).These words we must imprint in our hearts, brothers and sisters! Submit to God—that is, acknowledge His authority over you! Resist the devil – these false political systems, this deception, these heresies, schism, this propaganda of sin – and he will flee from you. When we live a truly church life, confess, take communion, the devil feels his defeat and flees from us in terror, because the servants of the Lord are inaccessible to the forces of evil! cleanse your hands, you sinners, correct your hearts, you double-minded. Lament, weep and weep; let your laughter be turned into weeping, and your joy into sorrow. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you (James 4:8-10).We must go to the glory of the Lord through repentance, through heartfelt contrition for our sins. We must ask the Lord for the gift of tears – a special, exceptional gift that not many have. And the Lord will lift us up. What do you mean – he will exalt you? This means that when His Coming comes, we will be torn from the earth and will be lifted up to meet the Lord! The Scriptures say that at His coming there will be two in the field: one is taken, and the other is left (Matt. 24:40); will lie on one bed - one will take it, and the other will remain... And what horror will grip us when our grandfathers, grandmothers, neighbors, with whom we constantly quarreled, ascend, and we ourselves will remain on earth! We will remain, unable to get off the ground. Because only those who have already submitted to God in this life, who have recognized His power over themselves, will be lifted up. Those who were not friends with this world will be lifted up, because they knew that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Be exalted and glorified, beloved children of Christ! And the path to this heavenly glory is only through tears of repentance, through spiritual warfare with the forces of evil, through resistance to the temptations of the evil one. The path to Heaven lies through the thorny path of life of a Christian.We know from the Holy Scriptures that even the ancient patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob – walked along this narrow path. All the saints of God followed this path. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews writes: "All these said of themselves that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth; they strove for the best, that is, for the heavenly (Heb. 11:13-16). We, too, dear brothers and sisters, must live in this world "as if we have not" [1], because everything in this world belongs only to God! We often hear the following words: "Recently I was very young. How the years fly by!" ... An acquaintance recently told me: "I think I served in the army quite recently - it seemed like yesterday, but I am already 60 years old!" But someone is already 70 years old, and someone is 80 ... Life flows very quickly. I remember my late grandmother saying: "I'm already many years old, and sometimes it seems that I'm still a girl: my mother has gone somewhere, and I'm waiting for her to come back..." Indeed, it is! We just don't notice how rapidly, day after day, time seems to curl up into a kind of ball! It seems to shrink: it feels as if you are rushing down a mountain.Many of our loved ones have already left this world. Many of those who were preparing for death asked me to bury them. When I see my former students lying in their coffins – students of Sunday school for adults – on the one hand, it is sad, but, on the other hand, there is also a kind of solemn feeling: these people have already prepared to meet the Lord – they have studied the Holy Scriptures, they have lived a full-blooded church life! Because very soon changes may take place – now atheists who hate Orthodoxy are openly striving for power.Recently I read that in Nizhny Novgorod the leader of the local communists made the following statement: "When we come to power, we will deal with the clergy! We will deal with the priests - they are completely impudent!" The enemies of Christ cannot calmly look at our freedom in the Lord. And, indeed, there will still be persecutions. We know from the Holy Scriptures that the most terrible persecutions are ahead, and they will be more terrible than the persecution of ancient Christians! Therefore, stock up on knowledge of the word of God, take spiritual instruction more seriously, and attend church more zealously! Visit the church library, Sunday school classes, invite friends and relatives to church. For the time will come, which is spoken of in the Book of the Prophet Amos: "And they shall go from sea to sea, and wander from north to east, seeking the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it" (Amos 8:12). You come to Sunday school classes and they will tell you: "Father Oleg has already been taken away, everyone else too!" And the temple is already being closed! Where to go, where to escape? You run to Pyatnitskaya Street, to the "Orthodox Word" - the store is already closed, and the books are being burned... All this can happen quite unexpectedly! Therefore, remember more often the admonition: "Take heed, walk carefully" (Ephesians 5:15). We are to live this life like the prudent virgins who gathered oil for the lamps: they expected the bridegroom to come soon, and their lamps were full of oil. What oil? Spiritual knowledge, the grace of the Holy Spirit! But the foolish, although they knew that the bridegroom was coming, had their vessels empty. And then at midnight they heard: "The bridegroom is coming!" Those who had oil were ready to meet, so they lit their lamps and went to meet their beloved bridegroom. Others, with empty vessels, were left with nothing (cf. Matt. 25:1-13).Once I asked my listeners: "Well, did you understand well what we were talking about today?" One grandmother answered: "Oh, it was so good, Father Oleg, so good!" – "And what was I talking about?" – "I don't remember!" Brothers and sisters, this probably also makes some sense: it is not necessary to perceive everything with the mind, with a rational consciousness. If the heart is open, that's enough! I also don't remember how my grandmother taught me as a child, but I remember her eyes, I hear her voice, her religiosity was passed on to me – my grandmother is still alive in my heart. So the main thing in any Christian fellowship is communion with the Lord. After all, the Gospel says: "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). Let us remember these words of the Savior more often!I say to you, brethren: the time is short, so that those who have wives must be as those who have not (1 Corinthians 7:29). ^

Conversation Eight

In the Revelation of John the Theologian it is said about the end times, that then a harlot will arise, on whose forehead it is written: "Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth" (Rev. 17:5). This is a woman who has many men. The of Babylon is an attempt to unite all politicians into one, and different state interests into one international sin. Now they want to organize such a heaping sin in Europe: the unification of Europe is taking place. Then they will try to unite the whole world – and unite it by the coming of the Antichrist! Then all politics will be mixed, all borders will be destroyed, so that by the time the Antichrist comes, his power will be ubiquitous.But you and I, brothers and sisters, must avoid this spiritual fornication. You and I should not participate in any political rallies, demonstrations, because there are different people speaking there, sometimes those who are hostile to Christianity. Sometimes we are told: "There will be a patriotic meeting where all the patriots will gather!" Once I went to see what kind of meeting of "patriots" it was and also fell into spiritual fornication! How did it happen? I began to listen to their reports. And what did I hear? A man comes out and says loudly: "The true religion is Slavic paganism; Our ancestors were pagans, and the Jews made them Christians!" And these words entered into me, through my ears into my heart; I felt that this was spiritual fornication, and I quickly left this meeting.We must fight for our spiritual chastity, brothers and sisters! So that no pagan fables, no communist and democratic contagion would stick to us, so that we would be really alien to these political, pseudo-patriotic speculations. Because you and I have chosen God's authority over us! And we want to serve only Him, because we are His people and we have no alternative but the life of the Church.His Holiness the Patriarch often calls on the Orthodox not to enter into political skirmishes, does not bless priests to participate in modern politics – to become deputies or someone else, precisely because this is a world of fornication. And the Patriarch is our common Holy Father, who does not want his children to follow the path of fornication! We may not go to the rally, but we can turn on the wrong channel by mistake: we wanted to watch an Orthodox program (now there are good Orthodox programs), but we got to see a speech by Zyuganov or Zhirinovsky! And fornication begins – spiritual fornication, political fornication... Even politicians themselves often admit that politics is prostitution. So, brothers and sisters, let's make it clear that we will have nothing to do with the world of politics; we choose only the authority of the Lord over us. We had already chosen this power of the Lord over us when we were baptized, when we renounced the devil, his evil deeds, his angels, and his pride; when we were united to Christ in Holy Baptism. Therefore, let us try not to get involved with the world, not to be friends with it, because, as we have read, friendship with the world is enmity against God. We want to be with the Lord in peace, and this peace – the peace of God and with God – was brought to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, having cleansed our souls on the Cross of Golgotha with His precious Blood. (James 4:5).As we now know, brothers and sisters, our Lord is very jealous. And we cannot serve God and mammon at the same time—we cannot serve the Church and the world of modern politics together. We cannot sit on two chairs at once – to combine the path of righteousness and the path of sin.The Lord will forgive a Christian some of his sinful falls, if it happened unexpectedly, even involuntarily, and then the person repented. But He will treat us very zealously if we depart from His truth, if we, succumbing to various harmful (I would even say stinking) currents of fallen human thought, cease to defend the interests of His Holy Church. Our children go to school – I advise you to carefully look through their textbooks – are there any blasphemous statements? I will give one example here. The well-known sectarian Korean Moon not so long ago published a textbook for children called "My World and Me". And this rather voluminous textbook began to be distributed in all Russian schools! Many of our children studied for several years using this sectarian textbook! They were purposefully implanted with false ideas about God, about the Church, about the Holy Scriptures! Brothers and sisters, you must carefully consider how and what your children and grandchildren are taught, this is your duty.Recently I talked with a mathematician friend who told me that somewhere in the 70s and 80s, textbooks on mathematics were published, compiled in such a way that it was almost impossible to study with them! Then a special government commission found out what kind of textbooks they were, why they were compiled this way. They began to look for authors-compilers, but it turned out that all of them had already left for their historical homeland, Israel. We began to investigate the situation further, and it turned out that it was a real sabotage: if one generation of Russians stops studying mathematics, then in a few years the overall scientific potential in the country will decrease, and this is already of military-strategic importance! How? Right from childhood, promoting homosexuality, perversions, masturbation, contraceptives! In many schools, the so-called sex education has already been introduced: a teacher comes to the classroom with a whole box of rubber products, distributes them to children and teaches them how to use them correctly. And our girls and boys sit and study: they puff up, play... But this is the spirit of fornication, brothers and sisters! Parents should know about this, and the Church should sound the alarm! There has already been a statement by the Holy Synod about the need to stop the program of so-called sex education, because it is aimed precisely at reducing not only the population in general, but so that there are fewer Orthodox Christians in Russia! And the Lord is jealous, He will ask us for our children, for our grandchildren, for our loved ones: did we follow how they learned and what? Sometimes we do not even watch ourselves, our own thoughts. But in the spiritual life there are no trifles! That is why it is said: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).If we realize God's zeal and begin to pull ourselves up spiritually, if we do not mix with the world of politics, with the world of fornication, if we distance ourselves from all kinds of heresies and errors, then God's blessing comes to us, to our families and our loved ones. That is why it is said: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. That is, we need to humble ourselves before God's commandments. Yes, they are strict, but if we do not humble ourselves before them—before their strength, their strength and might—if we do not bow down before the holiness of the Creator's commandments—who will we serve? She sent her grandson to school, where a rather strange system of education was adopted. The teacher painted the whole class with huge five-pointed stars. Inside each star there is an inscription: "idol". On the edges of these stars, he put photographs of his students, suggesting to each of them that he should become an idol for the others. This teacher developed in children some vulgarity, some strange moods. And the woman was terrified: "What is my grandson being taught, what is it?!" At first, she turned to her daughter: "Where did you send your son?" But the daughter did not delve into anything: "Well, this is probably such a modern system of education..."A child is indoctrinated: "You must become an idol for everyone, and in order to become one, you must have other idols yourself!" The little idol will live for himself, the main holiday in his life will be his own birthday: not Christmas, not Easter, but a personal birthday! But this is a direct path to Satanism – when everything is turned upside down, when selfishness is welcomed, and pride is encouraged. We must be humble, we must be servants of the Lord. And only this path – humility, recognition of one's slavery to the Creator – will be the path of grace, the path of communion with the Lord. resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7).These words we must imprint in our hearts, brothers and sisters! Submit to God—that is, acknowledge His authority over you! Resist the devil – these false political systems, this deception, these heresies, schism, this propaganda of sin – and he will flee from you. When we live a truly church life, confess, take communion, the devil feels his defeat and flees from us in terror, because the servants of the Lord are inaccessible to the forces of evil! cleanse your hands, you sinners, correct your hearts, you double-minded. Lament, weep and weep; let your laughter be turned into weeping, and your joy into sorrow. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you (James 4:8-10).We must go to the glory of the Lord through repentance, through heartfelt contrition for our sins. We must ask the Lord for the gift of tears – a special, exceptional gift that not many have. And the Lord will lift us up. What do you mean – he will exalt you? This means that when His Coming comes, we will be torn from the earth and will be lifted up to meet the Lord! The Scriptures say that at His coming there will be two in the field: one is taken, and the other is left (Matt. 24:40); will lie on one bed - one will take it, and the other will remain... And what horror will grip us when our grandfathers, grandmothers, neighbors, with whom we constantly quarreled, ascend, and we ourselves will remain on earth! We will remain, unable to get off the ground. Because only those who have already submitted to God in this life, who have recognized His power over themselves, will be lifted up. Those who were not friends with this world will be lifted up, because they knew that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Be exalted and glorified, beloved children of Christ! And the path to this heavenly glory is only through tears of repentance, through spiritual warfare with the forces of evil, through resistance to the temptations of the evil one. The path to Heaven lies through the thorny path of life of a Christian.We know from the Holy Scriptures that even the ancient patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob – walked along this narrow path. All the saints of God followed this path. The Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews writes: "All these said of themselves that they were strangers and sojourners on the earth; they strove for the best, that is, for the heavenly (Heb. 11:13-16). We, too, dear brothers and sisters, must live in this world "as if we have not" [1], because everything in this world belongs only to God! We often hear the following words: "Recently I was very young. How the years fly by!" ... An acquaintance recently told me: "I think I served in the army quite recently - it seemed like yesterday, but I am already 60 years old!" But someone is already 70 years old, and someone is 80 ... Life flows very quickly. I remember my late grandmother saying: "I'm already many years old, and sometimes it seems that I'm still a girl: my mother has gone somewhere, and I'm waiting for her to come back..." Indeed, it is! We just don't notice how rapidly, day after day, time seems to curl up into a kind of ball! It seems to shrink: it feels as if you are rushing down a mountain.Many of our loved ones have already left this world. Many of those who were preparing for death asked me to bury them. When I see my former students lying in their coffins – students of Sunday school for adults – on the one hand, it is sad, but, on the other hand, there is also a kind of solemn feeling: these people have already prepared to meet the Lord – they have studied the Holy Scriptures, they have lived a full-blooded church life! Because very soon changes may take place – now atheists who hate Orthodoxy are openly striving for power.Recently I read that in Nizhny Novgorod the leader of the local communists made the following statement: "When we come to power, we will deal with the clergy! We will deal with the priests - they are completely impudent!" The enemies of Christ cannot calmly look at our freedom in the Lord. And, indeed, there will still be persecutions. We know from the Holy Scriptures that the most terrible persecutions are ahead, and they will be more terrible than the persecution of ancient Christians! Therefore, stock up on knowledge of the word of God, take spiritual instruction more seriously, and attend church more zealously! Visit the church library, Sunday school classes, invite friends and relatives to church. For the time will come, which is spoken of in the Book of the Prophet Amos: "And they shall go from sea to sea, and wander from north to east, seeking the word of the Lord, and they shall not find it" (Amos 8:12). You come to Sunday school classes and they will tell you: "Father Oleg has already been taken away, everyone else too!" And the temple is already being closed! Where to go, where to escape? You run to Pyatnitskaya Street, to the "Orthodox Word" - the store is already closed, and the books are being burned... All this can happen quite unexpectedly! Therefore, remember more often the admonition: "Take heed, walk carefully" (Ephesians 5:15). We are to live this life like the prudent virgins who gathered oil for the lamps: they expected the bridegroom to come soon, and their lamps were full of oil. What oil? Spiritual knowledge, the grace of the Holy Spirit! But the foolish, although they knew that the bridegroom was coming, had their vessels empty. And then at midnight they heard: "The bridegroom is coming!" Those who had oil were ready to meet, so they lit their lamps and went to meet their beloved bridegroom. Others, with empty vessels, were left with nothing (cf. Matt. 25:1-13).Once I asked my listeners: "Well, did you understand well what we were talking about today?" One grandmother answered: "Oh, it was so good, Father Oleg, so good!" – "And what was I talking about?" – "I don't remember!" Brothers and sisters, this probably also makes some sense: it is not necessary to perceive everything with the mind, with a rational consciousness. If the heart is open, that's enough! I also don't remember how my grandmother taught me as a child, but I remember her eyes, I hear her voice, her religiosity was passed on to me – my grandmother is still alive in my heart. So the main thing in any Christian fellowship is communion with the Lord. After all, the Gospel says: "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them" (Matt. 18:20). Let us remember these words of the Savior more often!I say to you, brethren: the time is short, so that those who have wives must be as those who have not (1 Corinthians 7:29). ^

Part 1

Do not curse one another, brethren: whoever curses a brother or judges his brother curses the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not the doer of the law, but the judge. There is one Lawgiver and Judge, Who is able to save and to destroy; And who are you, who judge another? (James 4:11-12).Let us focus our attention on these two verses. It says that we Christians are not to speak evil of one another. But in life it often happens that all sorts of rumors, gossip, slander and even denunciations are spread precisely in Orthodox communities. This should not happen in any case! Without a doubt, the Lord Himself will take care of and cleanse our communities of such people who slander each other, engage in denunciation, and slander. But why can't one person judge another? Brothers and sisters, judging another person, we usurp God's authority: we arrogate to ourselves a right that belongs exclusively to God! Because only the Lord is the only Lawgiver and Judge. Only He can condemn, pronounce judgment, and carry it out. He has all the necessary powers to do so. And the main authority is the right of the Creator. The Lord created us and He has the right to decide the fate of each of us! Sometimes God's judgment comes upon us like a lightning strike. And even in the literal sense of the word. I remember hearing a story as a child about how a woman died when she was killed by lightning. I even remember the funeral of this woman, everyone then said: "She died because she had an abortion!" Small peoples value children very much and the birth of a child is always a joy. But this woman acted not only against the law of her people, but also against the law of God. And when all the troubles seemed to be over, then the misfortune happened. She was running across the field, it started to rain, and she was all wet. Peals of thunder, a lightning strike, and she falls dead! When I served in Siberia, I had to conduct a funeral service for two children: two twelve-year-old boys, classmates. It was raining heavily, a real storm, and the electric wires fell off the pole and fell into a puddle, where they hissed and sparkled. The children came up and decided to see: one of them immediately began to shake. The other decided to help his friend, grabbed him - and both were electrocuted to death. It is difficult to say what sins these two teenagers could have committed, but according to the spiritual law, even children are responsible for their actions... God's judgments are manifold — they are also manifested through the world of nature. You know how many problems there are with nature in the United States of America: typhoons, hurricanes, floods. You also know that in pagan countries, for example, in China, in Islamic countries, there are constant natural disasters. And people are dying in thousands, tens of thousands! God's judgments can also be manifested in diseases that befall people, especially when it comes to epidemics: entire tribes and nations often perish in them. This was the case, for example, in past centuries, when people did not know how to treat many diseases. Then epidemics destroyed entire cities, devastated entire countries. But there are incurable diseases that are beyond the control of modern medicine even now, for example, AIDS, cancer. These are also epidemics. An epidemic of leprosy snatches people from ordinary society and forces them to be outcasts. And all these illnesses are God's judgments.God's judgments are also realized through the Holy Church. The Church, as the Body of Christ on earth, has exclusive rights received from God. The Lord speaks of these rights to the Apostle Peter: "And I will give thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19). Let us remember how judgment was carried out in ancient times, when the law of God was given to people. In the book of Exodus we read: The next day Moses sat down to judge the people, and the people stood before Moses from morning to evening. And [Jethro], the father-in-law of Moses, saw all that he was doing to the people, and said, What is this that you are doing to the people? Why do you sit alone, and all the people stand before you from morning to evening? And Moses said to his father-in-law, "The people come to me to ask God's judgment; when they have any business, they come to me, and I judge between the one and the other, and declare [to them] the statutes of God and His laws (Exodus 18:13-16). This is how it was in the days of the God-seer and lawgiver Moses: he sat on a stone and judged the people.You, brothers and sisters, know that during the service in front of all the faithful, the bishop sits in the middle of the church. This is done as a sign that the bishop, as the spokesman for priestly authority, is a symbol of God's judgment. He symbolizes the God-seer Moses, who was given by God the right to decide all complex judicial issues.And the Church has the right to decide not only civil and criminal issues: the Church of God is said in the Scriptures that it will judge even angels [1] – what can we say about human crimes! And the task of Moses as a lawgiver was to judge people, declaring to them the statutes of God and His laws. To judge, guided not by human legal systems, which are vicious in their essence – for in the Scriptures it is said: "Every man is a lie" (Psalm 115:2), but to judge according to the laws of the Creator – according to those immutable laws, statutes and ordinances that are obligatory for all creation, both animate and inanimate! – says Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, – I will give you advice, and God will be with you: be thou a mediator with the people before God, and present to God [his] works; teach them [God's] statutes and [His] laws, show them [His] way in which they should walk, and the works they should do; And thou shalt see out of all the people men who are able, who fear God, who are righteous, and who hate covetousness, and appoint over them captains of thousands, and hundreds, and fifties, and tenths; let them judge the people at all times, and report to you every important matter, and judge all small things themselves: and it will be easier for you, and they will bear a burden with you; if you do this, and God commands you, then you will be able to stand, and all this people will depart to their place in peace (Exodus 18:19-23). Having received Divine permission for this, Moses followed this instruction and established the institution of judges in the Old Testament Church. For this purpose, proven pious people were singled out from the people, who shunned self-interest and were opponents of bribes. It was these people who carried out judgment on the people.God's judgments are also carried out when the book of God's law is opened—only in this case does judgment matter for Christians! When some other books are opened, those books that do not contain God's commandments, and they want to judge by these books, these are not God's judgments, but human ones! And how can a person judge a person if every person is a sinner? How can a person condemn another person if he does the same thing for which he condemns his neighbor? For, as we have found out, we are all guilty before the law, and the right of God's judgment belongs only to the servants of the Church, the servants of God.In the book of Deuteronomy we read about what judges should be like and how the ecclesiastical court should be carried out: "And I gave command to your judges at that time, saying, Hear your brethren, and judge justly, brother to brother, and to his stranger (Deuteronomy 1:1:1). It turns out that the Church has the right to judge not only believers (as brother and brother), but also unbelievers (and his stranger)! Further, we read: do not distinguish between persons in judgment, listen to both the small and the great: do not be afraid of the face of man, for judgment is the work of God; but bring the matter that is difficult for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it (Deuteronomy 1:17). Moses gave such instructions to the ancient judges. As we can see, the exclusive rights of God's judgment are given to the ministers of the people of God.Let us re-read the verses from the Epistle of the Apostle James: Do not curse one another, brethren: whoever curses a brother or judges his brother curses the law and judges the law.That is, if you want to say something to your brother, you must speak according to the law of God. And if you find some of your own words – sometimes very harsh (and some use abusive words to condemn each other) – then you ignore the law of God and become a judge and lawgiver yourself. And this is absolutely inadmissible, because there is one Lawgiver and Judge, Who can save and destroy; Let us look again at the book of Deuteronomy, here the following command is given: In all thy gates, which the Lord thy God shall give thee, thou shalt appoint judges and overseers according to thy tribes, that they may judge the people with righteous judgment (Deuteronomy 16:18). And they have the right to judge both believers and non-believers. Overseers are those people who, knowing the will of the Lord, shepherd the people. As a matter of fact, the word "overseer" means "bishop." A bishop is an overseer who oversees his sheep. As the guardian of faith and piety, he watches over how the sheep walk before the Lord: whether they do not turn aside, whether they do not go to other people's pastures.And then it is written: do not pervert the law, do not look at faces, and do not take gifts (that is, bribes. – Author), for gifts blind the eyes of the wise and turn the work of the righteous; Seek righteousness, righteousness, that thou mayest live, and possess the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee" (Deut. 16:19-20). Instead of the laws of the Creator, we have become content with the law of creation. We are already losing our land: we constantly hear that our lands are moving away from us. For example, in order to go to the Pukhtitsa Monastery, you already need to apply for a visa! Pochayiv, the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra is also abroad! And all this is only a consequence of the fact that we have replaced the truth of God with lies, we have replaced the laws of God with human godless fantasies, hallucinations, and human godless delirium.Radio Radonezh once broadcast a note in which the following wish was expressed: it would be good to appoint a priest to govern our state! This would actually correspond to the word of God.As we have read, the lawgiver and prophet Moses appointed believers as judges. Moreover, he appointed the Levites as overseers and shepherds who could govern the entire people.Now our country is in crisis: people are concerned about how to find a way out of this crisis. Some say: "I wish the Communists came to power sooner!" Brothers and sisters, what will happen if the Communists really come to power? This means that in every village, in every city, in every village, the main person will be a person with a red ticket – that is, an atheist with a party card in his pocket! Do you really want to have such pastors?But we know that today there is a priest in almost every Russian city. By God's mercy, pastors appear in almost all of our villages and villages. And if you want our land to be preserved (before we lose it completely), rely on God's judgments in everything: resolve all issues with the blessing of your spiritual fathers. In this way, you will stop the rampant ungodly laws and proclaim the supremacy of God's commandments.In addition, brothers and sisters, the Holy Scriptures forbid us to sue unbelievers: How dare any of you, when dealing with another, sue the wicked, and not the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? But if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge trivial matters? Do you not know that we will judge the angels, how much more the affairs of life? And you, – exclaims the Apostle Paul, – when you have worldly disputes, appoint as your judges those who do not mean anything in the church. To your shame I say, Is there not one prudent among you who can judge among his brethren? But brother to brother is suing, and that before the infidels. And it is already very humiliating for you that you have litigation among yourselves. Why would it be better for you not to be offended? Why would it be better for you not to endure deprivation? (1 Corinthians 6:1-7).In these words of the Apostle Paul it is directly stated that we cannot decide any lawsuits, any legal cases with the wicked: with those people who mean nothing in the Church.If a trial is being prepared, and you know that a sentence is about to be pronounced, you must have recourse to the right of the ecclesiastical court! We need to restore the order of things when divorces were carried out only by the decision of the church court: if the Church did not give consent, the divorce was considered invalid. It is necessary to restore the order of things when, without the participation of the Church, without the participation of a priest, any court session was considered illegal: a self-appointed assembly of the wicked, who mean nothing in the Holy Church. (1 Corinthians 6:3). ^

Part 2

So, brothers and sisters, let us take the situation in which our country finds itself more seriously. Perhaps for the first time in many years, by God's mercy, we have a chance that Russia can become a religious state! These people seem to feel that the power, the only legitimate power in Russia, is the power of the Patriarch! All other forms of power are built on bloody coups, on the murder of the Anointed of God, on communist and democratic riots, revolts and robberies.And we, brothers and sisters, must decide for ourselves: either we recognize the authority of the Lord and the judgments of God, and only they have meaning for us, or we will sue the wicked, those who mean nothing in the Church. One young man was tried. He was a believer, but he committed a crime. And you should have seen, brothers and sisters, how these judges laughed at the fact that he was a believer! The judge even asked him: "Are you wearing a cross?!" These are wicked people! They cannot pass any sentences, because the courts belong only to God and the Holy Church. The judgments of God, truly legitimate, that is, lawful, we can find only in the Church. Therefore, ask the pastors more often for their blessing and the necessary explanations of what you should do in this or that situation. Thank God, now there are more and more employees of the prosecutor's office and other law enforcement agencies who consult with the Church on various issues. Not so long ago, an agreement on cooperation was even concluded between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Church. Now the Church will, on legal grounds, spiritually nourish law enforcement officers, educate them, make them such ministers, about whom it is said in the Scriptures: "The ruler does not bear the sword in vain: he is God's servant, an avenger for the punishment of him who does evil" (Romans 13:4). Only His commandment is holy, only His law is binding on us. Someone may hear such words and ask, "Well, you don't recognize secular laws at all?" We will answer, "Yes, we don't recognize them!" But we are good citizens, because in the part where the laws of the world coincide with our laws (and many state laws are simply copied from the Bible), In the Scriptures it is said: to whom to give, to give; to whom a tribute, a tribute; to whom is fear, fear; to whom honor is honor" (Romans 13:7). But where the laws of men are at variance with the laws of God, we say: "No, only the judgments of God can decide disputes between believers and outsiders, between believers and believers, between outsiders and outsiders!" and we will dwell there one year, and we will trade and make a profit"; you who do not know what will happen tomorrow: for what is your life? a vapor that appears for a short time, and then disappears. Instead of saying to you: "If the Lord wills, and we live, we will do this or that," you, in your arrogance, are vain: all such vanity is evil (James 4:13-16). then with such words he tempts God. Or, for example, we say: "Now I'll go to the dacha, harvest the crop, then I'll preserve it all, put it in the basement and spend the winter somehow..." We tempt God with such words, because only this day belongs to us, and even then we are not sure whether we will live to see the evening! "If I am alive, I will be here and there"... For example, you are asked: "Will you come to visit?" — "With God's help!", "As the Lord wills!". This will be more reasonable and factually true, because our lives are entirely dependent on God.And now we are witnessing (especially in the world of politics, from which we need to move away) how politicians are constantly promising us prospects. They say: "Here, in two months there will be stabilization... Here, in six months there will be stabilization, in a year..." But maybe in a year there will be nothing at all! Perhaps there will be a nuclear catastrophe – after all, we know nothing, everything is in the power of the Lord.Therefore, we must always be attentive to our words, so that we do not offend the Lord, so that we do not tempt His patience. Let's learn to speak in a Christian way. From each of our words, from the very structure of our speech, those around us must guess that they are dealing with a Christian. Hope in God's Providence is the happiness of human life.Modern society means something else by human happiness. There is such a widespread opinion: "In life, you need to try everything. This is happiness!" But this is a completely false idea of life. True human happiness is when we suppress the base passions in ourselves, when we limit ourselves to the commandment of the Creator; when we are guided by those God's instructions that can really make our families, our homes, our people, our country happy.A modern person is a person who really wants to try everything in life, and has already tried a lot and has terribly stained himself with a variety of sins. Of course, brothers and sisters, we are not some special people: we also have many problems, many shortcomings. But we are the people who said to ourselves: "That's it! I return to my Father and leave the life of sin!" Do you remember, brothers and sisters, the Gospel parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32)? The prodigal son, realizing his sinfulness, then said: "I will go to my father!" In our religious life, we have also come to this path, to this path of the Church, to that narrow path that alone can lead us to the Heavenly Father. Some walk bashfully, somehow shifting from foot to foot... A woman recently said to me, "I go to church, but I am so ashamed of my sins! I do not even dare to take communion. I also read in Slavonic (she learned to read Church Slavonic), but I am somehow ashamed even to pray..."Brothers and sisters, we must understand that in Christ Jesus we can not only know the direction where we should go, but by walking along this path, of which it is said: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we might follow in His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:11). 21), we change our nature — we put off the old Adam and put on the New Adam, that is, Christ. Following the path of churching, we constantly change our lives. It is like a spiritual school, in which a person, moving from one class to another, matures, matures: matures spiritually and changes internally. Remember what you were like twenty years ago? I am sure that in the life of every believer who regularly goes to church, prays, reads the Holy Scriptures, confesses, takes communion, important spiritual changes take place. This is happiness – to see how the grace of God changes us! This is the happiness of human life – to feel how well the Lord corrects each of us! I think: "How could I live like this?!" Probably, each of us, too, when recalling our youth, the frivolous years of youth, turns back with horror: "How did I live like this?!" But, brothers and sisters, even now we do not consider ourselves to be particularly righteous. We say: "I still have many sins!" Although the sins that burden us now are no longer the sins that we had before! If once a person considered murder and rape to be a sin, and turned a blind eye to everything else, now this is not the case. Years pass, a person goes to the temple of God, studies the Holy Scriptures, becomes a churchgoer, and for such a person pride is already a sin, a bad word about one's neighbor is a sin. And before? "You never know what he said, because he didn't hit me!" ... Spiritual growth, without a doubt, is present in the life of a Christian.This is happiness – to see how Christ saves us, how Christ transforms us. It transforms, changing our nature. After all, the Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured before the holy apostles precisely in order to show them what awaits them ahead – what heavenly and spiritual glory awaits every Christian, every Orthodox believer! when we do evil. Over time, when we grow spiritually, it is a sin for us if we can do good, but do not do it. It seems that he did not sin, but he did not do the good that he could have done. For example, you have the means to help poor relatives, and you understand that you should do it, but you don't do it – it's a sin! Do you have neighbors who need your help? Maybe these are lonely, sick people who need to be visited, talked, sat with them, communicated? But you don't do this, and sometimes you have the following thought: "Well, I didn't offend my neighbor, I just didn't come to him!" But this is also a sin! Because we, Christians, exist not only in order not to sin, not to do any actions against our neighbor, against ourselves and against God, but we also live in order to bring forth the fruit of repentance, to testify by spiritual changes in our lives that we are different. as bad debtors. Maybe we communicated with these people ten or fifteen, or even thirty years ago. Surely there are people who have been offended by some of us, and they remember us as evil people. Let's try to restore relations with those to whom we once inflicted some damage. After all, the Scriptures tell us: be at peace with all people (Romans 12:18). Try to testify in front of them, "Yes, I have become different! Yes, I used to drink, but now I don't drink as much as I used to! Yes, I have sinned, but now I am turning away from sin, because the Lord teaches me through His word to shun sin!" It is very important to collect the stones that we have scattered throughout our lives – the stones of sin.One woman, who also attended Sunday school, suddenly remembered her husband, from whom she had been divorced for ten years: "Maybe call him? Ask how he lives?" ... When they divorced, she was still an unbeliever. And so, she called and cautiously began to ask him: "Well, how are you, how are you?" ... — "Yes, I live alone." — "Where are you going?" — "I began to go to church." Suddenly everything inside her stirred: "And I also go to church - "Joy of All Who Sorrow". "And he said, 'And I'm going to Father Artemy Vladimirov.' And that's it! They met and began to live together again: they got together because they had become completely different people! This woman said that her husband's face had even changed: before he had dead eyes, constant drunkenness, debauchery, godlessness – all this leaves an imprint on his face, but now he has become a living person! As it is said in the Scriptures: "There is a time to scatter stones, and a time to gather up stones" (Ecclesiastes 3:5). The time to scatter is already over. That time of sin is a thing of the past. Now is the time to recover, to recover spiritually. And by changing, we will also change the people around us. Our spiritual healing will extend to our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren.So, brothers and sisters, the true happiness of human life is faithfulness to the law of God! The happiness of human life, disturbed by sins, can be restored through the judgments of God. Only with God and in God do we gain for ourselves everything that every person needs! Walking along this thorny path, we ascend higher and higher into that wondrous city, the holy city of Jerusalem, the new one, descending from God out of heaven (Rev. 21:2), in which all will be as one people. And if we are truly vouchsafed to enter this city, the Heavenly Jerusalem, then eternity will not be enough for us to worthily glorify God for what He has done to us in this earthly life, and for the life that He grants to every righteous person!