Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future

by Seraphim Rose

  This writer tells the story of a person who had received the “Baptism” with speaking in tongues and was encouraging everyone to seek it. Yet he admitted that repentance had not been part of his experience and that not only had he not been delivered from sinful habits, but even had no particular desire to be delivered from them. The writer concludes: “A pentecost without repentance — a pentecost without Christ — that is what some are experiencing today.... They have heard of tongues, they wish to identify with a status experience, so they seek someone to lay on hands for a quick, cheap, easy impartation which bypasses Christ and His Cross.” Nonetheless, this writer admits that speaking in tongues is undeniably “the initial consequence or confirmation” of the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” (Harry Lunn, in Logos Journal, Nov.–Dec. 1971, pp. 44, 47).

  Those who bring Christian ideas to the experience assume that the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” is a Christian experience. But if it can be given to those who merely seek a cheap, easy status experience — then there is no necessary connection whatever between this experience and Christ. The very possibility of an experience of a “Pentecost without Christ” means that the experience in itself is not Christian at all; “Christians,” often sincere and well-meaning, are reading into the experience a Christian content which in itself it does not have.

  Do we not have here the common denominator of “spiritual experience” which is needed for a new world religion? Is this not perhaps the key to the “spiritual unity” of mankind which the ecumenical movement has sought in vain?

  B. The “New Christianity”

  There may be those who will doubt that the “charismatic revival” is a form of mediumism; that is only a secondary question of the means or technique by which the “spirit” of the “charismatic revival” is communicated. But that this “spirit” has nothing to do with Orthodox Christianity is abundantly clear. And in fact this “spirit” follows almost to the letter the “prophecies” of Nicholas Berdyaev concerning a “New Christianity.” It completely leaves behind the “monastic ascetic spirit of historical Orthodoxy,” which most effectively exposes its falsity. It is not satisfied with the “conservative Christianity which directs the spiritual forces of man only towards contrition and salvation,” but rather, apparently believing like Berdyaev that such a Christianity is still “incomplete,” adds a second level of “spiritual” phenomena, not one of which is specifically Christian in character (although one is free to interpret them as “Christian”), which are open to people of every denomination with or without repentance, and which are completely unrelated to salvation. It looks to “a new era in Christianity, a new and deep spirituality, which means a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit” — in complete contradiction of Orthodox tradition and prophecy.

  This is truly a “New Christianity” — but the specifically “new” ingredient in this “Christianity” is nothing original or “advanced,” but merely a modern form of the devil’s age-old religion of shamanistic paganism. The Orthodox “charismatic” periodical The Logos recommends Nicholas Berdyaev as a “prophet” precisely because he was “the greatest theologian of spiritual creativeness” (Logos, March 1972, p. 8). And indeed, it is precisely the shamans of every primitive tribe who know how to get in contact with and utilize the primordial “creative” powers of the universe — those “spirits of earth and sky and sea” which the Church of Christ recognizes as demons, and in serving which it is indeed possible to attain to a “creative” ecstasy and joy (the “Nietzschean enthusiasm and ecstasy” to which Berdyaev felt so close) which are unknown to the weary and half-hearted “Christians” who fall for the “charismatic” deception. But there is no Christ here. God has forbidden contact with this “creative,” occult realm into which “Christians” have stumbled through ignorance and self-deception. The “charismatic revival” will have no need to enter a “dialogue with non-Christian religions,” because, under the name of “Christianity,” it is already embracing non-Christian religion and is itself becoming the new religion which Berdyaev foresaw, strangely combining “Christianity” and paganism.

  The strange “Christian” spirit of the “charismatic revival” is clearly identified in the Holy Scriptures and the Orthodox Patristic tradition. According to these sources, world history will culminate in an almost superhuman “Christian” figure, the false messiah or antichrist. He will be “Christian” in the sense that his whole function and his very being will center on Christ, Whom he will imitate in every respect possible, and he will be not merely the greatest enemy of Christ, but in order to deceive Christians will appear to be Christ, come to earth for a second time and ruling from the restored Temple in Jerusalem. Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away (apostasy) first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God...even him whose coming is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (II Thess. 2:3–4, 9–12).

  The Orthodox teaching concerning antichrist is a large subject in itself and cannot be presented here. But if, as the followers of the “charismatic revival” believe, the last days are indeed at hand, it is of crucial importance for the Orthodox Christian to be informed of this teaching concerning one who, as the Saviour Himself has told us, together with the “false prophets” of that time, shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect (Matt. 24:24). And the “elect” are certainly not those multitudes of people who are coming to accept the gross and most unscriptural delusion that “the world is on the threshold of a great spiritual awakening,” but rather the “little flock” to which alone our Saviour has promised: It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32). Even the true “elect” will be sorely tempted by the “great signs and wonders” of antichrist; but most “Christians” will accept him without any question, for his “New Christianity” is precisely what they seek.

  C. “Jesus is Coming Soon”

  Just in the past few years, significantly, the figure of “Jesus” has been thrust into strange prominence in America. On stage and in films long-standing prohibitions against portraying the person of Christ have been abrogated. Sensationally popular musicals present blasphemous parodies of His life. The “Jesus Movement,” which is largely “charismatic” in orientation, spreads spectacularly among teenagers and young people. The crudest form of American popular music is “Christianized” at mass “Jesus-Rock Festivals,” and “Christian” tunes for the first time in the century become the most popular in the land. And underlying this whole strange conglomeration of sacrilege and absolutely unenlightened worldliness is the constantly reiterated expression of seemingly everyone’s expectation and hope: “Jesus is coming soon.”

  In the midst of this psychic and “religious” devastation of the American land, a symptomatic “mystical” occurrence has been repeating itself in the lives of widely separated Americans. An editor of a “charismatic” magazine relates how he first encountered this occurrence as told by someone at a gathering of like-minded people:

  “My friend and his wife were driving up to Boston on Route 3, when they stopped to pick up a hitchhiker. He was young and had a beard, but he wasn’t dressed like a hippie. He got in the back seat without saying much, and they drove on. After a while, he quietly said, ‘The Lord is coming soon.’ My friend and his wife were so startled that they each turned around to look at him. There was no one there. Badly shaken, they pulled into the first gas station they came to. They had to tell someone else, no matter wha
t the reaction. As the attendant listened, he didn’t laugh. Instead, all he said was, ‘You’re the fifth car to come in here with that story.’

  “As I listened, in spite of the hazy sunlight, a chill began to creep up my backbone. Yet that was only the beginning. One by one, around the circle, others were led to recount similar incidents, until there were six all told, across the length and breadth of the country, and all had taken place within the past two years” — in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Duluth (thirteen reports to the police in one night), New Orleans; sometimes the hitchhiker is a man, sometimes a woman. Later an Episcopalian priest told the editor of his own identical experience in upstate New York. To the editor, this all indicates that in fact ‘Jesus is coming soon’” (David Manuel, Jr., in Logos Journal, Jan.–Feb. 1972, p. 3).

  The careful observer of the contemporary religious scene — especially in America, where the most popular religious currents have originated for over a century — cannot fail to notice a very decided air of chiliastic expectation. And this is not only true of “charismatic” circles, but even of the traditionalist or fundamentalist circles that have rejected the “charismatic revival.” Thus, many traditionalist Roman Catholics believe in the coming of a chiliastic “Age of Mary” before the end of the world, and this is only one variant on the more widespread Latin error of trying to “sanctify the world,” or, as Archbishop Thomas Connolly of Seattle expressed it fifteen years ago, “transforming the modern world into the Kingdom of God in preparation for His return.” Protestant evangelists such as Billy Graham, in their mistaken private interpretation of the Apocalypse, await the “millennium” when “Christ” will reign on earth. Other evangelists in Israel find that their millenarian interpretation of the “Messiah” is just what is needed to “prepare” the Jews for his coming.2 And the arch-fundamentalist Carl McIntire prepares to build a life-size replica of the Temple of Jerusalem in Florida (near Disneyworld!), believing that the time is at hand when the Jews will build the very “Temple to which the Lord Himself will return as He promised” (Christian Beacon, Nov. 11, 1971; Jan. 6, 1972). Thus, even anti-ecumenists find it possible to prepare to join the unrepentant Jews in welcoming the false messiah — antichrist — in contrast to the faithful remnant of Jews who will accept Christ as the Orthodox Church preaches Him, when the Prophet Elijah returns to earth.

  It is therefore no great consolation for a sober Orthodox Christian who knows the Scriptural prophecies concerning the last days, when he is told by a “charismatic” Protestant minister that, “It’s glorious what Jesus can do when we open up to Him. No wonder people of all faiths are now able to pray together” (Harold Bredesen, in Logos Journal, Jan.–Feb. 1972, p. 24); or by a Catholic Pentecostal that the members of all the denominations now “begin to peer over those walls of separation only to recognize in each other the image of Jesus Christ” (Kevin Ranaghan in Logos Journal, Nov.–Dec. 1971, p. 21). Which “Christ” is this for whom an accelerated program of psychological and even physical preparation is now being made throughout the world? — Is this our true God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who founded the Church wherein men may find salvation? Or is it the false Christ who will come in his own name (John 5:43) and unite all who reject or pervert the teaching of the one Church of Christ, the Orthodox Church?

  Our Saviour Himself has warned us: Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Behold I have told you beforehand. If therefore they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the wilderness, go not forth; Behold, he is in the inner chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west, so shall be the coming of the Son of man (Matt. 24:23–27).

  The Second Coming of Christ will be unmistakable: it will be sudden, from heaven (Acts 1:11), and it will mark the end of this world. There can be no “preparation” for it — save only the Orthodox Christian preparation of repentance, spiritual life, and watchfulness. Those who are “preparing” for it in any other way, who say that he is anywhere “here” — especially “here” in the Temple of Jerusalem — or who preach that “Jesus is coming soon” without warning of the great deception that is to precede His Coming: are clearly the prophets of antichrist, the false Christ who must come first and deceive the world, including all “Christians” who are not or do not become truly Orthodox. There is to be no future “millennium.” For those who can receive it, the “millennium” of the Apocalypse (Apoc. 20:6) is now; the life of grace in the Orthodox Church for the whole “thousand years” between the First Coming of Christ and the time of antichrist.3 That Protestants should expect the “millennium” in the future is only their confession that they do not live in it in the present — that is, that they are outside the Church of Christ and have not tasted of Divine grace.

  D. Must Orthodoxy Join the Apostasy?

  Today some Orthodox priests, led by Fr. Eusebius Stephanou, would try to persuade us that the “charismatic revival,” even though it began and mostly continues outside the Orthodox Church, is nonetheless “Orthodox,” and we are even warned, “Don’t be left out.” But no one who has studied this movement in the works of its leading representatives, many of whom have been quoted above, can have any doubt that this “revival,” in so far as it is “Christian” at all, is entirely Protestant in its origin, inspiration, intent, practice, “theology,” and end. It is a form of Protestant “revivalism,” which is a phenomenon that preserves only a fragment of anything genuinely Christian, substituting for Christianity an emotional “religious” hysteria whose victim falls into the fatal delusion that he is “saved.” If the “charismatic revival” differs from Protestant revivalism, it is only in adding a new dimension of crypto-spiritistic phenomena which are more spectacular and more objective than mere subjective revivalism.

  This evident fact is only strikingly confirmed by an examination of what Fr. Eusebius Stephanou tries to pass off for an “Orthodox awakening” in his periodical The Logos.

  This Orthodox priest informs his readers that “the Orthodox Church is not sharing in the modern-day Christian awakening” (Feb. 1972, p. 19). He himself now travels about holding Protestant-like revival meetings, together with the Protestant “altar call,” which is accompanied by the usual revivalistic “sobs and tears” (April 1972, p. 4). Fr. Eusebius himself with typical revivalistic immodesty, informs us that “I thank and praise God for shedding some of the light of His Spirit into my soul in response to the unceasing prayers I have been sending up night and day” (Feb. 1972, p. 19); and later he openly declares himself to be a “prophet” (April 1972, p. 3). He mentions nothing whatever of the Orthodox interpretation of apocalyptic events, and yet he repeats Billy Graham’s fundamentalist Protestant interpretation of the “Rapture” that is to precede the “millennium”: “The Great Tribulation day approaches. If we remain true to Christ we will surely be caught up to be with Him at the sound of the glad rapture-shout, and we will be spared the horrible destruction which is to fall upon the world”4 (April 1972, p. 22). And yet not even all fundamentalists are agreed on this error,5 which has no foundation in Holy Scripture6 and removes from those who follow it all necessity for watchfulness against the deceit of antichrist, from which they imagine they will be spared.

  All of this is not even pseudo-Orthodoxy; it is just plain Protestantism, and not even the best kind of Protestantism.One looks in vain in the Logos of Fr. Eusebius Stephanou for an indication that his “awakening” is inspired by the sources of the Orthodox ascetic tradition: the Lives of Saints, the Holy Fathers, the Church’s cycle of services, the Orthodox interpretation of Holy Scripture. Some Orthodox “charismatics,” it is true, make use of some of these sources — but alas! they mix them together with “many other books written by devout Christians involved with the Charismatic movement,” (Logos, March 1972, p. 16) and thus read them “charismatically”: l
ike all sectarians, reading into Orthodox writings what they have learned from their new teaching, which comes from outside the Church.

  It is true enough, to be sure, that an Orthodox awakening would be much to be desired in our days, when many Orthodox Christians have lost the salt of true Christianity, and the true and fervent Orthodox Christian life is indeed rarely to be seen. Modern life has become too comfortable; worldly life has become too attractive; for too many, Orthodoxy has become simply a matter of membership in a church organization or the “correct” fulfillment of external rites and practices. There would be need enough for a true Orthodox spiritual awakening, but this is not what we see in the Orthodox “charismatics.” Just like the “charismatic” activists among Protestants and Roman Catholics, they are fully in harmony with the spirit of the times; they are not in living contact with the sources of the Orthodox spiritual tradition, preferring the currently fashionable Protestant techniques of revivalism. They are one with the leading current of today’s apostate “Christianity”: the ecumenical movement. Early in 1978 Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Archdiocese of North and South America finally gave his official approval to the activities of Fr. Eusebius Stephanou, including permission for him to preach everywhere specifically on the “gifts of the Holy Spirit”; thus the church organization in its most modernist and ecumenist figure joins hands with the “charismatic revival,” reflecting the deep kinship that unites them. But true Christianity is not there.