Therefore, we should not look down on our interlocutor, not see him as an enemy, but as a lost brother. We lost him, did not come up in time, did not stretch out a hand, did not explain, did not support...

Once we did not say to him, perhaps, only one kind word – and now, in order to explain ourselves, we have to talk with him for hours. Once one parishioner, seeing how long I was talking with sectarians who came to our church, half-jokingly said to me: "Now I understand how you can achieve a long and individual conversation with you: you just need to sign up for some sect."

And one more thing: do not build your defense of Orthodoxy only on the opposition of "Russian" to "American." Orthodoxy is not a national, but a universal, world religion. And in America itself, the Orthodox Church has several million members. The following argument can be appealed to the heart: "What are you? is it not bitter to be a foreigner in one's own country?..".

But even turning to reason, with the Bible in hand, it is quite possible to explain the correctness and depth of patristic thinking.

A more detailed comparison of Orthodoxy and Protestantism, first of all on the most important question – the question of the mutual relationship between Scripture, the Eucharist, Tradition and the Church – is given in my book "Tradition, Dogma, Rite".

Notes

* A decree is being prepared on the rehabilitation of church ministers.

† Sola Scriptura (Latin) – "Scripture alone" – is the slogan of Protestants who reject church tradition.

‡ This variant reading was already familiar to Origen7.

** The formula of faith that every tongue must profess is the recognition that Jesus is Lord.

Such punctuation is in the so-called "Brussels" edition of the Bible.

§ In parentheses – the author's clarification. –Red.

** Fr. Alexander Men recalled that Gleb Yakunin (then still a priest), Lev Regelson and Felix Karelin in the late 60s promised the end of the world and even rushed to New Athos. "Later they said that they did not indicate the exact time, but they told me that they indicated not only the time, but also the date, they were waiting for grandiose events that would move the masses to baptism."11