However, any Christian is called to the same thing: "Look into yourself and into the teaching; do this continually: for by doing so, you will save yourself and those who hear you" (1 Tim. 4:16).   Sectarian: You pronounced this verse with such significance... Is this your favorite verse?   Orthodox: Yes... After all, it is said: "Faith therefore comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10, 17).   14.

On the Orthodox Understanding of Patriotism   Sectarian: I heard that you take part in all kinds of patriotic organizations. Isn't it obvious to you that Christianity and patriotism are incompatible concepts?   Orthodox: Don't you know that everything that God has created, "everything that He has created... very good" (Gen. 2:10). 1, 31).

A nation is as much a part of God's creation as the moon, the stars, and so on. And in human life, nationality – as part of Divine providential creativity – is called upon to play an essential role in the matter of our salvation. The nation, as well as the family, helps a person to destroy the egoism of his own "I", which lives only by its own separate interests and is closed only to itself.

God Himself said: "... it is not good for a man to be alone; let us make him a helper according to him" (Gen. 2:18). This Divine invocation must be seen in all its ego aspects. "It is not good" not only without a wife, but also "it is not good for a man to be alone" – meaning both without his people and without his children. Now some newlyweds will get a dog and think that it's enough.

And the first commandment of God, the first in the time of revelation, says: "And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth..." (Gen. 1:28). God doesn't just say "be fruitful," but He says "and multiply." That is, you need to have not only one child – this is only "be fruitful", but have more – "and multiply".

And as far as I know from some married couples, they sign a statement that they will abstain from pregnancy[ii]. To abstain means to protect oneself, and how? — with the help of an elastic band or in some other way... The sin of masturbation is still a sin. It is said: "Onan knew that the seed would not be for him, so when he went in to his brother's wife, he poured out [the seed] on the ground, so that he would not give the seed to his brother.

Evil was in the eyes of the Lord what he did; and He killed him also" (Gen. 38:9-10).   Sectarian: Such a law – to marry a brother's widow – existed only in ancient times. The Jewish nation itself was under the threat of destruction, a high birth rate was needed. Now there is no such threat of extinction. And if there is a pious justification for abstinence and protection, especially for the sake of a higher goal, then...

  Orthodox: You care about the high mortality of the ancient Jews and do not see that the Russian people are literally dying out. Every year, one million people die from alcoholism alone! Official statistics have already recognized that more people die in our country than are born. Isn't that a problem?   Sectarian: But isn't man self-sufficient?

He is the perfect creation of his Creator. The Bible says: "Thou hast made him little less than the angels: Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor" (Psalm 8:6). Adam and Eve were perfect male and female. The entire animal and plant world was subordinate to them. They did not need any interethnic barriers. They were not interested in the problems of fertility. What is all this for?

They lived in complete submission to Jehovah's will. And all the problems that you have touched upon can be resolved, and very soon. When Jehovah's millennial kingdom arrives, then the evil system of things will be destroyed. In the theocratic kingdom, equality and harmony have already been achieved between men and women in their relations with each other.

  Orthodox: For that matter, I will remind you that the man was superior to his wife both in origin and in position. It is said: "For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man; and the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man" (1 Cor. 11:8-9).   Sectarian: Do you mean that a woman is not equal to a man?   Orthodox: Equal! But only in the call to salvation.

It is said: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 28). And in real earthly life, as they say, beyond the threshold of the Church, there are both interethnic and interclass problems. There are also problems related to the relationship between the sexes. And the Church exists not in order to find justice and happiness for man in the hurricane of revolutionary inter-class and inter-ethnic wars, but in order to preach peace between estates and classes, peoples and tribes.

But not a world in which some have everything and others have nothing. We will never recognize the results of criminal privatizations and forced (unaddressed) voucherization. The Church should always be on the side of the poor and disadvantaged. How many homeless Russians are there now (especially from among those who fled with their families from the so-called "Ukrainians"). "hot spots"). And at the same time, Moscow is being built up with large and beautiful houses. But who are these houses for?

The Scriptures say: "Woe to you who add house to house, who add field to field, so that there is no room for others, as if you were alone on the earth. The Lord of hosts has said in my ears, 'These many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful without inhabitants' (Isaiah 5:8-9). True Patriotism appeals to each of us from the pages of the Holy Scriptures: "... stop doing evil; learn to do good, seek righteousness, save the oppressed, defend the fatherless, intercede for the widow.