My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ Our Only True Lord, God, and Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
The True Face of the Heresy of Protestantism
By Father Valery Dukhanin, translated by
"Orthodox Christianity," OrthoChristian.com.
When some people in the Church become interested in liberalism and reforms, expressing their dissatisfaction with the Church’s traditions, it would not be superfluous to remind them that that is precisely how Protestantism was born in its time. Protestantism was born in its time. What Protestantism leads to, and its hidden essence is something that the holy Fathers reveal to us most precisely. Amongst the Fathers of the Church, especially significant is Saint Igrnatius (Brianchaninov), whose spiritual intuition always exactly exposed the subtlest deceptions.
Being in society and having experienced the influence coming from the Protestant West, Saint Ignatius often spoke out on this issue. In the present time, now having the complete works of Saint Ignatius, we are able to compile a sufficiently clear picture of his views on Protestantism..in an article, "A visit to Valaam Monastery," the Saint speaks about the Lutheran proselytism among the local population, as a result of which Orthodoxy on the Finnish shore was pressured to leave. "Now there are Lutheran churches here, which pronounce only the meagre sermons of a cold pastor. Telling the people in his sermons nothing more than superficial, scholarly information about the Redeemer and His moral teaching, he gives each time something like a funeral eulogy over the true, living faith and Church that the people in these regions have lost." Thus, there is no True Faith and life in Protestantism, ONLY RATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP WITH A SUPERFICIAL MORAL TEACHING. Therefore, in Protestantism there could never be any serious ascesis, or deep spiritual experience.
Moreover, RATIONALISM, and the ABSENCE OF A DEEP SPIRITUAL LIFE led Protestantism to THE REJECTION OF ASCETICAL PRINCIPLES THAT HAVE BEEN NATURAL TO TRADITIONAL CHRISTIANITY OVER THE COURSE OF A MILLENNIA AND A HALF. To some extent, Protestants, just like godless atheists, blaspheme Monasticism, denying its Divine origin. Such denial was directly embodied in the life of the progenitor of Protestansim–Martin Luther–and was later exposed in Protestantism’s REJECTION OF THE CHURCH’S CORRESPONDING DOGMATIC STATEMENTS CONCERNING THE EVER-VIRGINITY OF THE MOTHER OF GOD: "Protestants, ,the worn enemies of New Testament virginity, asserts that the Most Holy Vessel and Temple of God, violated her virginity after she had given birth to the God-Man, became a vessel of human lust, entered into a relationship with Joseph as his wife, and had other children. A horrible thought! both beastly and demonic! A blasphemous thought!…"
Saint Ignatius did not even consider the path to Christian perfection to be outside of virginity, chastity, and Monasticism. It was a path that was shown in the life of Christ Himself, and was embodied already by the first generations of Christians. Protestantism, in rejecting this foundation of Orthodox asceticism, was naturally regarded by the Saint as a fall from a spiritual and moral height to a level of life that of beasts…
"Although Luther’s writings were directed against a series of errors of the Roman church, Saint Ignatius finds three kinds of error in Luther himself. First of all, in place of the Roman errors Luther offers his own errors, secondly, he kept certain of Catholicism’s errors and thirdly, he even magnified some of Roman Catholicism’s errors.
Among the preserved errors of Catholicism, Saint Ignatius distinguishes: the teaching of the FILIOQUE (which, in the Saint’s view, was the main reason for the West’s separation from Christ’s Church), and the performance of the Sacrament of Baptism through pouring (as opposed to IMMERSION).
Among the magnified errors of the Latins, the Saint directs our attention to the relationship toward the Holy Eucharist: If Catholics lost the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist BY TAKING OUT THE INVOCATION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT… Luther, REJECTING THE EUCHARIST ALTOGETHER, says, "The bread transubstantiates in the mouth of those who partake of it with faith." …Luther REJECTS also the lawful rank of the Episcopate and Ordination itself, having by this violated what was established by the holy Apostles. Having rejected the Latin INDULGENCES, he also rejected the Sacrament of Repentance/ Confession… The Saint points out one of Luther’s key errors, preferring FAITH with THE REJECTION OF GOOD WORKS, saying that supposedly, "faith is sufficient for salvation, even though one’s works do not correspond to faith."
Luther’s well-known errors–rejection of icons, holy relics, prayers to the Saints in Heaven, most of the Sacraments, and Holy Tradition itself by a false interpretation of the Holy Scripture according TO ONE’S OWN WHIMS–the Saint concludes, "All of these errors, taken together, are not only in opposition in the One True Holy Church, but also contain in themselves many serious blasphemies against the Holy Spirit!" That is, this is not simply a personal opinion with which we can tolerantly agree, but a serious blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
"For Saint Ignatius (Brianchaninov) himself, the borderline between true teaching entirely corresponds with the boundaries of Orthodox confession, and the grace of the Holy Spirit dwells ONLY THERE, WHERE THE TRUTH IS–IN THE Orthodox Church…Compared with Catholicism, Saint Ignatius views Protestantism as a great fall. If the Catholics made changes to the Sacrament of Confession, the Protestants rejected it outright. If the Catholics excluded the INVOCATION OF THE Holy Spirit from the Liturgy, the Protestants have rejected the Liturgy altogether. In Catholicism, there is still an element of asceticism, albeit spiritually delusional, while Protestantism has completely lost the ASCETIC LIFE; remaining is only soullessness and cold rationalism. As we know, Saint Ignatius relied upon asceticism, based upon the writings of the Holy Fathers, for his entire spiritual life; HE SAW IN IT A PURE AND CLEAR PATH TO SALVATION. Therefore, he especially sharply commented on Protestantis’s disgust for Patristic Ascesis. Thus, the Saint evaluates Protestantism as the loss of the key institutions of Christianity–a kind of foreshadowing of the ultimate loss of them in atheism and godlessness…
"The toughness of his statements were always explainable by the obvious fact that any departure FROM THE TRUTH IN CHRIST, WHICH IS MANIFESTED IN Orthodoxy, IS A DEPARTURE FROM SALVATION; moreover, it is an unnoticeable departure and therefore more dangerous. The Saint’s bitter feelings regarding the spread of heterodox teachings was a bitterness over the spread of seductive lies, WHICH CONCEAL THE TRUTH. But the Saint never expressed any contempt for Protestants themselves…
"On the whole, Saint Ignatius’ evaluation of Protestantism might seem to some too categorical and strict. Just the same, it would make sense to heed the Saint’s spiritual intuition: THE PATH OF RATIONAL COMPREHENSION OF THE TRUTHS OF FAITH, WHILE HAVING LOST THE HOLY TRADITION OF THE CHURCH, LEADS TO COLDNESS IN SPIRITUAL LIFE, AND WITHOUT FAIL TO THE LOSS OF DOGMATIC PURITY, WHICH WE OFTEN SEE IN OUR MODERN LIBERAL REFORMERS. [Source: Orthodox Heritage)
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"Glory Be To GOD
For
All Things!"
– Saint John Chrysostomos
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With sincere agape in His Divine and Glorious Diakonia (Ministry),
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Ethos 