Daniil Sysoev/Catechetical Conversations/ Library Golden-Ship.ru Priest Daniel Sysoev CATECHETICAL CONVERSATIONS Publishing House of the Church of the Prophet Daniel on Kantemirovskaya, Moscow, 2007   Orthodox Library, Golden Ship, 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS On God and the Holy Scriptures On the Commandments of God On the Mystery of the Incarnation of God On Baptism and the Sacraments of the Church On Good and Evil. On the struggle with sin.

The logic is clear, that is, if the Bible was given by the Holy God, then the word must also be holy. The moral bar of the Bible – is there anything higher than it? Is there anything higher than the Gospel moral bar? No. Although, you will agree that the biblical requirements are quite fair. For example, it is fair not only not to kill, but also not to be angry. Fairly? "Don't steal.

"Again, not only not to steal, but also not to covet someone else's. It is fair not only not to cheat on your wife, but also not to look at other women. You will agree that this is a fair and purer approach to a person. In this sense, the Bible is remarkably different from other books. For example, there is such a funny episode in the Koran, I laughed for a long time when I read it.

There, Muhammad fell in love with the wife of his adopted son. And then a revelation comes to him: Muhammad, you should not have adopted sons. Everything is wrong, everything is wrong, you are wrong. Muhammad transmits a revelation – this means that the adopted son immediately ceases to be an adopted son. Then comes the revelation: the wife of the adopted son must divorce him. A revelation comes, which means that the adopted son, faithful to the prophet, is divorcing his wife.

Then comes the third revelation: Muhammad must marry her. It's convenient, of course. Muslims also have commandments. For example, the following: you cannot kill any of the believers, however, you can kill infidels. Or – the life and property of believers are inviolable, it is forbidden to steal from believers. And for non-believers, everything that is bad is yours. The logic is kind of incomprehensible.

Or, for example, a revelation comes: you have to give the prophet one-fourth of the spoils, if you can't, well, okay, a fifth. That is, a good, convenient revelation. It is impossible to believe that this is the word of God, you will agree. Or, for example, there was such a wonderful revelation: everyone is allowed to have four wives and as many concubines as you want. But Muhammad is allowed to have as many wives as he wants.

But no one ever has the right to take Muhammad's wives. But this is all quite understandable, a person is woman-loving, loves many wives. In addition, he is jealous, he does not want his wives to marry others later, it is also understandable. But why is this called the word of God! I compare all this so that it becomes clear that the moral level of the word of God is incomparable with anything.

In Greek mythology, morality as such is completely absent. Indeed, pagan gods live according to their own, often not at all moral laws. And the word of God is absolutely moral. And now look: if this were written by a person who had to live by what he wrote, would he write it for himself? "Even a highly moral person?

— It is human nature to write for oneself. But here it is written only from the point of view of God. This is indeed the word of God, the purest word of God. The next, third evidence that the Bible is the word of God, the miracle of its authors. We know this not only from the Old Testament, but also from the New. The apostles also worked miracles, the Jews spoke about this.

The Talmud mentions that, for example, under no circumstances should you go to Christians, to the apostles, who heal on Saturday, this is prohibited. That is, even the enemies said that the apostles worked miracles. Moreover, such as no one could reproduce. No one can, for example, raise the dead. "Why?" "Because only the Creator can resurrect the dead.

A friend of mine was writing a paper on Muslim miracles. In Islam, miracles occurred, real ones, but not a single resurrection of the dead was recorded. In fact, this is a very interesting fact, which shows by whose power they worked miracles. This one can heal, but he is not able to raise the dead. And there were even attempts, but when they failed, they said: well, this is not for us.

One Muslim honestly said that only Christians are capable of resurrecting. And why? Because miracles can be done by the power of the enemy or God. "Is the enemy's force capable of healing?" Healings can be done by the power of the enemy and by the power of God. If the enemy has brought some kind of disease, he can remove it, elementarily. Imagine, I will, for example, fry you with a soldering iron, and then remove the soldering iron. The same is true of the demon.

Evil spirits know the material world well, they know better than humans, so they can naturally act in this way. But practice shows that miracles performed by evil spirits do not have the property of healing. They heal a person one thing, and cripple another. This is how all psychics act, without exception. Many people came to us after psychics.

They will cure, for example, enuresis in a person, and his cancer begins. It is not for nothing that psychics themselves get cancer very often. "Why?" — Yes, it turns out that this happens at the expense of demons. And the fact that demons can perform miracles, the word of God speaks about this directly. Demonic forces exist, but there are things that are not reproducible for demons, these are miracles of creation.

For example, a demon cannot heal a man born blind. Why? Because a man born blind has no eyes. Eyes must be created. For example, a blind person with a cataract can be healed by a demon, just like a person. After all, cataracts just need to be removed. And a demon cannot heal a man born blind, who has no eyes. A demon cannot perform a real exorcism of a demon. To exchange one demon for another is, of course, no problem.