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The antediluvian world perished from the sins of the flesh: modern humanity is perishing from satanic pride. – The "prime minister" in the field of pride is Satan himself. - His cunning in catching souls. – Separation from the Church. – The beginning of perdition for a Christian. "Spiritism is an ancient charm. – Spiritism in Babylonia, India, Greece in the Most Ancient Times.2

The Holy Scriptures say about the antediluvian world: "And the Lord God saw the earth, and was corrupted, for they corrupted all flesh in their way on the earth... And the Lord God said, "My Spirit shall not dwell in these men for ever, for they are not flesh" (Gen. 6:12, 3). People became flesh – only flesh – this is the reason for God's terrible judgment on mankind at that time! When one reads this sentence, one involuntarily turns one's mind to modern humanity: is not a similar sentence already thundering over it, as it once thundered over antediluvian people? Have not today's people also become flesh, have not all their thoughts, all their desires turned towards the service of the flesh, are not their minds, their hearts occupied with flesh alone?.. The Western states are drowning in depravity: and they want to drown our Russian people in this whirlpool, with zeal worthy of a better cause, distributing godless and depraved books among them; The seeds of vice are soon sprouting: is it possible to talk about what can be read every day in any newspaper?..

And those who call themselves "intellectuals" no longer consider carnal sins to be a sin... However, what do they consider a sin?!..

Depravity in all its forms is a terrible evil: it threatens entire nations with destruction. The antediluvian world perished from this evil, seven cities led by Sodom and Gomorrah perished from it. And if the pagan nations, who had forgotten the true God, were not spared and perished – some in the waves of the flood, others in the flames of God's wrath, then what can we expect for the peoples who were once enlightened by the faith of Christ? Read the menacing lines in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, (chapter 6, verses 4-8). But there is an evil that is even more terrible, there is a sin that is even more ungodly, a sin for which the grace of God departs from people and gives them over to Satan to be mocked in the service of the flesh and its lusts. This is the sin of Satan himself, the sin of pride, which infects a person unnoticed by himself, creeps into his heart and begins to imperiously command him. Everyone should ask him, he is a whole head taller than everyone else. There is nothing to say about any shortcomings in him: he has none, he is all perfection. He possesses the "latest words" of science in all fields of knowledge: there are no authorities for him except these "last words." Thus grows, under the influence of the spirit of pride, the self-esteem of a proud person. But in reality, his spiritual growth stops, his heart dries up, becomes incapable of what it was mainly created for – humble love, the mind goes out and becomes a blind instrument of evil will in the service of the same pride. Being at the service of the sinful heart, the mind seeks out and concocts various theories by means of which it would be possible to lull the conscience, which, although weakly, but nevertheless asserts its rights, reminding it of God and His holy law, to silence it, at least for a while, by means of this or that false sophism, this or that theory, flattering sensuality... This is the primary source of all anti-Christian false teachings, all sectarian philosophies, beginning with the ancient heretics and ending with the present. All this internal, so to speak, policy is led by a kind of Prime Minister – the prince of darkness, Satan. When he deals with a soul that firmly believes in the existence of the spiritual world, he approaches it from the right side, substituting his theory of the spiritual world for it in the form of some kind of spiritualism, leading it into this fatal error to the point of blasphemy. If the faith in the soul is not particularly firm, if it is rooted only in the views of the mind, if it has slightly touched the surface of the heart, and has not been buried deep in it, then it simply uproots this faith by means of materialistic negative false teachings, turning man into some kind of soulless creature, worse than an animal, into a walking machine...

There is also another category of people who believe in God, who sincerely seek communion with Him, but who are infected with the same spirit of pride: such people are drawn into mystical heresies. At the root of all delusions is pride, that primordial sin of Satan. All heretics, all sectarians and schismatics from apostolic times to our own times have been infected with pride.

A distinctive feature of this pride is the denial of the authority of the Church. Such people always place their wisdom above the Church's teaching, affirmed from the ancient ages, beginning with the Apostles, revealed by the Holy Fathers at the Ecumenical and Local Councils, and interpreted in the writings of the divinely wise fathers and teachers of the Church. Heretical pride in its self-exaltation will never be able to cope with this, as the ancient Church taught about this or that subject, as the fathers and teachers of the Church, glorified by God, wrote; a heretic will not look into the history of the Church, even into the universal history of mankind, in order to check himself: did not there ever exist before me such a teaching as came into my head, and why did it not take root, did not become a universally recognized truth?

And it is for such pride, for such self-confidence, for such contempt for the Church, for the entire past experience of mankind, that the grace of God, which cannot endure the stench of demonic pride, departs from man, and he gives himself over to the mockery of Satan. Then Satan pushes him into that abyss of false wisdom in which he has already destroyed many thousands of heretics both in Christianity and outside of Christianity.

Spiritism should be considered one of such pernicious philosophies.Many thousands of people are carried away by this blasphemous teaching in our time, even those who believe in Christ; it is considered as a new revelation, whereas it is as old as the whole civilization of which Europe is so boasted.

The followers of spiritism boldly declare that "spiritualistic dogmatism personifies the Kingdom of God on earth, and its propaganda will renew humanity, destroy tribal and religious strife and hostility." "Spiritualism," its ardent apologists ambitiously assert, "must be widely propagandized among those in power, among kings and priests... Anyone who opposes dogmatic spiritualism is against Christ."

Such is the audacity to which the false teaching of the spiritists reaches! It is the duty of the pastors of the Church and all her faithful children to denounce this blasphemous heresy, to warn the faithful against it, to expose all the lies of her intricate wisdom and to expose the one who guides her, hiding behind someone else's name and transforming himself into an angel of light. It is not in vain that one researcher of this charm says: "Whoever does not know spiritualism seems ridiculous to him, whoever gets acquainted with it appears mysterious to him, and whoever looks at it in detail appears to be a formidable, terrible phenomenon."