Following the path of the Holy Fathers or following a pathless path – Metropolitan of Strumica, Mr. Nahum
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Some time ago I wrote that by accepting God’s information, we also accept God’s uncreated energy, i.e. grace, i.e. life and power, and, by accepting demonic information, we simply remain without grace, we disconnect ourselves from God’s energy, life and power.
Many people, over time, have asked me questions regarding this topic – of correct, i.e. God’s information, and incorrect, i.e. demonic information, that have made me think; I will share with you a few of the more interesting ones.
Which is a greater heresy, that is distortion of the faith, – erroneous information: caesaropapism or ethnophyletism? In caesaropapism, a man is made an idol and put in first place – before God, while in ethnophyletism, a nation or people is made an idol and put in first place – before God. In both cases we have idols placed in the place of God, and this is a falling away from the Orthodox faith.
Related to this problem is the question of which is a greater distortion of the faith: the centralisation of administrative and church arrangement in the person of one man, or centralisation on an ethnic basis – with the formation of the so-called “national churches”? In both cases, a spirit is manifested that destroys or attempts to destroy the Catholicity and Unity of the Church, as well as the integrity of the Local Episcopal Church.
Which is a greater distortion of the faith: the claim that the Holy Spirit also proceeds from the Son – which is not a Divine Revelation at all, or the attempt to dispute the primacy of honour of the Ecumenical Patriarch – which is a centuries-old canonical and administrative tradition? The first theoretically destroys the monarchy of the Father and the unity of the Holy Trinity based on Him, and practically the unity of the Church at that time, while the second one practically destroys the established canonical order, as well as the unity of the Church based on this canonical order; but the result is the same – anarchy and schism.
Which is a greater distortion of the faith: the teaching of some kind of created grace, or school of thought, as well as any marginalisation of the ascetic-hesychastic tradition of the Holy Fathers of the Church? In both the first and second cases, the actualisation of the uncreated grace of Baptism, as well as the transfiguration of man, is made impossible, and the result is the same – the production of anti-spirituality and anti-pastoralism.
Which is a greater distortion of faith: the false elevation of women to divinity through the teaching of the immaculate conception of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Ever-Virgin Mary, or the humiliation that the “Orthodox” inflict on women – theologically unfoundedly depriving them of basic religious needs and rights? In both the first and second case, the key role of women – mothers in our existence and salvation – the founders and bearers of the inner, royal and eschatological priesthood is denied.
Which is a greater distortion of faith: the teaching of purgatory, or the harmful glorification of certain “struggles” – from a position of identification with the nation and the state, that is, from a position of ethnophyletism, such as killing in the name of the “fatherland” and supposedly for the “faith”, which apparently provides us with salvation and holiness? In both cases, God’s merciful judgment is overlooked, as well as the catholic struggle of the Church, which supplements our shortcomings after repose, whilst salvation relies only on human suffering and merit.
Which is a greater distortion of faith: indulgence, that is, the redemption of sins, or the payment of church dues? In both cases, the fundamental commandment of Christ is violated – “freely you have received, freely give!”; although the clergy themselves are not at all to blame for this situation, but rather the established system that is alien to us. The clergy should not have been born of the school, but from the Holy Eucharist, and the clergy thus raised and educated would have been an example of a spiritual school and education.
I can only note that heresy always strikes at the Holiness, Unity and Catholicity of the Church.
I shall not to be too long with the text, I had several questions that were similar in nature, essential and non-essential, but also my personal observations – about which I have often written, as real problems that disrupt Christian unity in the world, and at the basis of which certainly lies an incorrect or formal “spiritual life”. It seems that we should all together humbly return to the Tradition of the Holy Fathers of the First Church – in the glory of God, and not invent our own tradition – in the service of our personal interests and for our own glory.
To me, some heresies seem greater than others – because they are written down as dogmas and belong to someone else’s Christian community, and some seem to me lesser – because they are lived more as practice and occur in my Holy Church, but I am not very sure because of the final result – the divisions, as well as the personal falling away from the Holy Spirit of Truth of the one who accepted the heresy; because heresy is heresy, regardless of whether it is big or small, written down, or in practice, in someone else’s Church, or in ours: “and eternal life is such, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You sent,” in the Holy Spirit, the Lord. For example, the Orthodox Church has unanimously condemned ethnophyletism as a heresy, but some of its “members” obviously live by its principles, which is why they are emptied of the grace of the Holy Spirit; as are our churches of believers.
On the occasion of the 1700th anniversary of the First and Holy Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, and in the name of Christian unity – about which so much has been said for decades, the new Roman Catholic Primate could have at least decided to return their entire community to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Symbol of Faith (Nicene Creed) – in order to put an end to the unnecessary disputes over such a clear and immutable decision made by the Holy Council; as well as to correct the erroneous teaching about the immaculate conception of the Theotokos – which displaces the entire Dispensation of Salvation.
It is important for us that unity in the Church, in the Holy Spirit of Truth, never exist, in any way, without unity in the True Faith of the Holy Fathers – both between them and us; and among ourselves…
Metropolitan of Strumica Mr. Nahum
31/05/2025
