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May 7, 2020

Episode 13

On Demonic Methodology, Part II: Q & A

Today on the Orthodox Ethos podcast, On Demonic Methodology, Part II and answers to your questions.

In today’s podcast, we are going to be touching on really important and interesting topics, and I hope you will stay with me until the end when I will make a number of important announcements.

The main aim of this podcast is to assist you all in your quest to acquire the Orthodox Ethos, which includes, or rather presupposes, the Orthodox phronema or outlook. These are both the fruit of our Life in Christ, which is a gift given to those made worthy, those with a faith as a mustard seed, those who didn’t let the “good uneasiness” go to waste.

A defining characteristic of Orthodoxy as seen in the saints, that which is unique and sets the Church apart from the religions of the world, is the discernment of spirits. The saints are the spiritual men, and - as the Apostle Paul writes, “the one who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.”

As St. Justin Popovich writes:

“The ability to judge and discern the good from the bad, benevolent spirits from evil spirits, is a gift acquired with spiritual struggle, with spiritual feats, with spiritual labor. It is a charismatic [of the Spirit] act, by which charismatic [spiritual] wisdom is obtained, by which alone one can be properly oriented in the human world of spirits and discern correctly if something is of God or not.”

So, here it would appear that this most distinguishing characteristic of Orthodoxy, which sets it apart from the religions, is reserved only for the holy ones, for the perfect alone. And, yet, listen to what the Beloved Apostle and Evangelist John says to the Church, to every one of us, to every “saint,” in every age:

John 4:1:

“1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 2 Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. 4Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 5 They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareththem. 6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.”

So the Apostle here commands us to test, to try, to examine and discern the spirits, that is, “persons, teachings, ideas, and thoughts” (according to St. Justin Popovich; that is what spirits includes: “persons, teachings, ideas, and thoughts”, whether they are of God or of the enemy.

Of course, this means we have the Spirit of God. It presupposes that we have the spirit of God in order for this to take place, for, as St. Justin Popovich also writes: “The Holy Spirit gives to man the gift of discerning spirits” (1 Cor. 12:10).

Why is this commanded of us? Because if you live in the paradigm of moralism, which is most “Christianity,” what passes for most “Christianity” today, why is this necessary? “Be a good person and you have achieved salvation,” right? Isn’t that what they tell us? But in fact, that is delusional. It is not what the Church teaches, not what Christ gave to us. There is much more to it.

That is yet to even enter into the spiritual life. That is still with the old law. So, why is this commandment for us so important? The Apostle is so strident in saying, test, discern the spirits. Because falsehood is manifest everywhere, in many false prophets, that is, those who ostensibly speak the truth to the world but actually are deceivers.

What are the criteria to recognize these liars, these false prophets? Denial of the coming - and this is very important, the Greek is implying more than just the incarnation of the Word and His three years of ministry, no. The coming - the continuous present; the continuous presence - of Christ in the world, the denial of this. It is not referring only to His birth, death, resurrection and ascension, but to his continuous presence, the continuation of His incarnation, in His body, the Church.

And in fact, it is referring more to that –to the Church - than it is even to His coming, His first coming, because the Apostle is writing to the Church from the first to the second coming. The Apostle in his Apocalypse, in his Revelation, is a book about the life of the Church from the first to the second coming. This is what is at the heart of his message to the people of God, that those who deny the presence of God in the Church, in His Body, these are Antichrists.

In other words, They

● deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God;

● deny that the Son of God is Begotten of the Father before all ages (the Arians of every age);

● deny the Divine-humanity (the Theanthropic nature) of the Church;

● deny the Divine-humanity (the Theanthropic nature) of the Eucharist, by supposing it can spread disease. (And we see many today, and we will see more as we go forward who will teach this.);

● deny that the Divine Energies are present in the Divine Liturgy, in the temple of God, during the Divine Liturgy, purifying and sanctifying men and creation. This is also a denial of the presence of God in, par excellence, in His Church in this world.

That is why we run to His Church, because it is there that the Holy Spirit descends and changes the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. The Eucharist is the heart of the Church. It is where the Church is manifest.

The philosophy of the devil is summed up in denying God in the world, His presence, and His incarnation. This is the whole work of the devil. The philosophy of the Antichrist is this: to take the place of Christ in every way, in every place, and in every person.

What more concretely is the spirit of the Antichrist, in the end times?

One word can be use to describe the spirit of Antichrist, and that is: secularism. We use this term in many ways, but if we are to use it in a patristic way, I believe, following the teachings of the fathers, and especially our elder in our day, AthanasiosMitilinaios.

Secularism is first and foremost the spirit of Antichrist, which is already in the world, and has been. “Every spirit which confessethnot that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,” but we have to unpack that. Again, I am stressing that it is not only that “Christianity” which expressly denies the divinity of our Lord, the various contemporary “Arianisms,” and there are many in the west today that are so-called “Christians” but they in fact deny his divinity and are Arians, but every spirit which denies that the Jesus Christ is come – has come and remains – in His flesh, in His body, Christ theChurch.

It is very important for us all to understand that the discernment of the methods of the fallen spirits, or demonology, is not a luxury; it is not an option. It is, rather, a requirement in the formation of Christology and Ecclesiology. As St. John the great Evangelist, beloved of the Lord teaches, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

Insomuch, therefore, that we lack a critical analysis and discernment of the spirits - ideas, thoughts, teaching, and persons - behind the current crisis in the world, which has brought about the cessation of the Synaxis *EPI TO AUTO* of the Church [the gathering in one place, which is the Eucharistic assembly], an unprecedented and frightful event in the history of the Church, this is not indicative of the patristic mindset.

Let me repeat that: In so much as we lack critical analysis and discernment of the spirits in this time and place, in this crisis, which has ceased the Eucharist, for the most part, for the faithful (and one could question whether we can even talk about the Eucharist and Synaxis without the faithful), this is not indicative of a patristic mindset, but of a secularized mindset.

Such an approach is consistent with the approach of a secularized “Christianity” and reminds us of the lamentable gathering of theSecond Vatican Council, which the Cretan Council unfortunately imitated, insomuch as not only was no reference made to heresy but representatives of heretical confessions were invited and even honored during the sessions, which is a very, very sad and obvious departure from previous Ecumenical Councils.

The Orthodox way is to be ever-watchful, vigilant, mindful of the wiles and machinations of the enemy. This is much of what the spiritual life, the science of sciences, is all about: being trained in the wiles of the enemy to overcome the demonic passions and acquire the angelic virtues. Those initiated into the mystery of the incarnation, the mystery of the Church, which is the portion of all those being saved, are ever-cognizant of the mystery of iniquity (2 Thess. 2:7), which is at work.

Let’s move on to the same theme, but in our questions and answers.

In response to our podcast entitled “The Coronavirus Narrative and Its Demonic Methodology” we received an avalanche of letters, comments and messages. Nearly all of them were very positive and supportive. One or two were critical. I would like to address those for the sake of all of us, because I am sure that this criticism, although just barely showing up on the radar of all our discussions online, I am sure it is being heard by many of our listeners and our viewers.

I want to look at a few of the points that are made in the criticism of that podcast and our approach to this whole question of this crisis. I appreciate, and I thank those who made those comments, because this is the kind of open and sincere dialogue and discussion that we should have in the Church. God forbid, in the Church, the freedom of expression is snuffed out, God forbid.

One comment referred to a supposed “conspiracy theory” which, they said I had expressed. I am not sure what he is referring to, but I am happy that he mentioned this because the question I want to ask all of us is: Do Orthodox Christians believe in conspiracy theories? Should we? That is a good question. Even an important question.

Let’s look at Holy Scripture and see what references to conspiracies exist there.

One is mentioned in the Book of Daniel, (Ch. 3) where certain elite among the Chaldeans sought to kill and conspired against the Prophet Daniel.

In the Gospel of Matthew we read how they sought to kill Jesus who healed on the Sabbath: “Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him” (Matthew 12:14).

In the Gospel of John we read of a conspiracy to kill Lazarus: “and the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death.” They consulted. They conspired.

In the Acts of the Apostles we read how they conspired to kill the Apostle Paul: “When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who made this conspiracy…”

In the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, we read of certain Judiazers plot against Paul: “…false brothers secretly brought in—who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery…”

And the list could go on, with dozens of references in Scripture to the evil one and his servants plotting against the holy ones, the Holy One, and His faithful.

For example, in Psalm 83, which is an entire Psalm-prayer to frustrate those conspiring against the people of God, we read:

“…thine enemies have made a noise; and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.

3 Against thy people they have craftily imagined a device, and have taken counsel against thy saints.

4 They have said, Come, and let us utterly destroy them out of the nation; and let the name of Israel be remembered no more at all.

5 For they have taken counsel together with one consent: they have made a confederacy against thee.

In Church history there are innumerable examples of demonically-inspired conspiracies against Christians, many times leading to the martyrdom of the saints. In our own days, under the communist, atheist yoke, we have countless stories of the state conspiring against Christians to destroy the Church - and many who were martyred are now included in the “great cloud of witnesses” because of their witness in the face of this conspiracy.

So, to the question: “Do we believe in conspiracy theories,” the answer is:We do not believe in them.We have long experience of them.

For our life from the first to the second comings of our Lord is one continuous struggle, “not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,” against the conspiracy of demons. The demons are conspiring against us as against Christ, for we are His body. Again, Christ is his Church; the Church is Christ. The demons are conspiring against every one of us who has his name and are members of His body.

Someone may object: yes, but a demonic conspiracy is one thing, a human conspiracy is quite another.

To be sure, discerning the spirits means rejecting many of the theories circulating today from sources that are far from Christ, among those without the grace of the Holy Spirit or the mind of Christ. This goes without saying; this is assumed. We should not even have to discuss this. That discernment is going to have to be necessary in every theory of explaining the world and what is going on. There are millions of them, philosophies and ideologies and all the rest.

So clearly, associating the Orthodox patristic response to the demonic conspiracy and our understanding of what is happening spiritually in the world with any of these movements and ideologies and philosophies is at the very least disingenuous.

The misinformation can be so well packaged today, and come at you at such a rate, that even the most conservative observer can be persuaded. No doubt, among other reasons, that is why one bishop directed his priests to limit their viewing of news on the Coronavirus to 15 minutes.

However, it would be a mistake to limit such a skeptical stance only to the non-official theories floating around. There is much ground to be suspect of theories and narratives generated by officialdom, including state organs.

The organized propaganda of the bloody totalitarian atheist states of the 20th century teach us this much. And it would be very naive to think that in our age of “info wars” in which everyone uses the media to his advantage, the media skies are not filled with half-truths and lies spawned by the spirit of python. Indeed, with the aid of greatly advanced technology, the lies and deception are much more subtle today, and thus much more dangerous.

So, although the Apostle said we struggle “not against flesh and blood,” that does mean that flesh and blood does not struggle against us. We have no enemies, but does that mean that there are no enemies of the Church? We do not war against our brothers made in the image of Christ, but does that mean that a war is not being waged against the Church by those we call brothers? Does that mean that human beings are not cooperating with, consciously or unconsciously, the demonic conspiracy?

No. No. Unfortunately, 2000 years of experience of the saints, and especially those in our day, under the atheist yoke, testifies that there are many who align with, make common cause with, the demonic conspiracy. They seek what the demons traffic in - the passions - and the demons gain rights over them, to manipulate them into carrying out the mystery of iniquity, to bring to power their man of iniquity.

From the earliest days of the Church, the fathers and ecclesiastical writers referred to the devil as the ape or imitator of God. “DIABOLUS SIMIA DEI” in Latin. That means the ape of God.

They referred to the devil as the “Ape of God” because he counterfeits the work of God. He has no originality. He simply imitates. Tertullian declared that: “Satan imitates the sacraments of God” and “goes about to apply to the worship of the idols those very things of which the administration of Christ’s sacraments consists.”

Those early Church fathers sought to put flesh on the invisible warfare of the demons, in order to protect the Christians from their machinations and delusion. Everything that is truly of the Church is aiming at the salvation of mankind. Every teaching, every advice, every admonition is for the sake of the faithful. Every prophecy is for the sake of their salvation.

Following their example, here is one theory, by which we may better understand the conspiracy of demons, and how the conspiracy of demons incorporates “flesh and blood.” This is just one view, one attempt, which you can take or leave, but which has as its starting pointthis understanding, of seeing the enemy as a counterfeit, a plagiarizer, an imitator and an ape of God.

The devil observes how Christ and His Church works and is structured into a communion of salvation.

We have Christ, the 12 apostles, the 70, then we have the bishops, the local Churches, and throughout history the Church grows and spreads throughout the world, through this structure, this process of in every age, the saints and their witness being the presence of Christ in the world.

We have the councils of bishops. And those special saints in every age, those who have reached the inner circle of sanctity, the 12 of every age, reaching the highest levels of initiation into the mystery of salvation, the mystery of piety,theosis.

These, the servants of God, “conspire” to save mankind from sin and death. They conspire against the ruler of the passions, the ruler of this world, to extend the overthrowing of the power of the devil to everyone. It has been given to us. It has been given by Christ, but it has to be extended and adopted, and activated by everyone. And this is what the saints in every age struggle to do.

In the Church, however, there are many levels of knowledge and action, and there are many who are not zealous, not conscientious, not having activated the grace, which was bestowed upon them when they are initiated into the life in Christ through Baptism, Chrismation, and the Holy Eucharist. They carry the name of Christian but do not really understand or enter into the life of Christ; do not live it fully or at all.

This is a picture; the devil observes all of this. And he imitates. And he is the ape of God. So he has his community, his communion of the lost. The enemy has his disciples, his apostles in every age, his overseers, his councils of evil men, that we see in Scripture. Scripture is a type of every age, you see.

When we read in Scripture about the conspiracy of the Pharisees, that is not just once. That did not happen at that time (only). It happens in every age, and it is a continuous presence and a warringagainst the body of Christ in every age. So we have councils of evil men, we have creators of lodges and societies that are dedicated to the enemies work, that reject Christ and his grace.

Among them, those few in every age, like those few saints in every age, that are really initiated,like the 12, that are set apart, there are those of the devil in every age who are initiated into the inner mysteries of iniquity, perversion and corruption, unbelief and nihilism.

Those who are proud, greedy, angry, and conspire to rule mankind, lead it into spiritual death with them, into slavery of the passions. And, yet, there are those, many who are on the fringes of this mystery of iniquity, of this evil plan, of this attempt to ascend the Antichrist into his throne. There are those who are a part of it but are like the weak, secularized, lapsed Christians, ignorant of the inner circle, the inner mysteries of the mystery of iniquity.

And there are parts of these structures and societies, these men that are not fully initiated, do not fully understand the big picture, the endgame, are ignorant and passively following, passionate about little except that which is passing.

Satan has his synagogue. The devil is the ape of God, and his demons conspire with men, insomuch as the menacquiesce.

So, there is something there to consider, how we might interpret and understand the conspiracy of demons, and the conspiracy of men with demons. One key aspect of this is that the demons and the devil give men what they want, the passions. They are behind the passions. Using then, these impassioned men for his ultimate goal, which is the ascent of the Antichrist, which we know about from our own fathers and our Lord.

Our commentators respond to all of this and say:

“Even if your personal “conspiracy theory” about what is going on with this pandemic turns out to be correct, it matters little. What we need to do is simply continue with our repentance and growth in Christ. What happens around us will happen no matter what. We cannot stop the end of time or the coming of the Antichrist and all that proceeds his entry on the world stage.”

There is no doubt that any attempt to change the course the world has taken is futile. The world of the passions is indeed a sinking ship and it is sinking because it is rotten, fallen, and unrepentant. Our Lord sends us not to keep it afloat but to save as many of the perishing, of the shipwrecked, as we can and bring them into the ark.

As, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov wrote more than 150 years ago: “Do not attempt to stop [the rising tide of apostasy] with your weak hand. Avoid it, protect yourself from it, and that is enough for you. Get to know the spirit of the times, study it so that you can avoid its influence whenever possible.”

Do not attempt to stop it, he says, but take measures to protect yourself from it, avoiding its influence, by knowing the spirit of the times. I would like to think that this is precisely what we are attempting to do here, and everything we are doing is for the sake of our salvation of the brethren and for all those who are seeking salvation. For, as a priest, is it possible for me to be saved if I neglect the attempt to assist others in protecting themselves?

The call for turning entirely inward, ignoring the tide of apostasy and stocking our storehouses of spiritual reserve reminds me of a certain heterodox group which focuses mostly on prepping for disaster and filling their material storehouses, as if these measures will save them in the day of affliction.

Storing food is not a bad idea, of course, it is unwise to rely on the supermarket and supply chain, something very recent in history; but only if our goods, the food and things we have stored, are earmarked for our neighbor, as well. What will we do then, when starvation sets in? Horde our food and be indifferent to our neighbor’s plight? God forbid. We would earn a double condemnation if we did this.

Likewise, Saint Ignatius’s call to protect ourselves from the tide of apostasy by getting to know the spirit of the times cannot be interpreted in a pietistic manner. Continuing in our repentance and growth in Christ not only is not opposed to being mindful of the spirit of the times and helping protect oneself and others from it, it presupposes it.

Love of Christ and neighbor are inseparable. If we say we love God, but not our neighbor, we are liars, says the Apostle John. Love compels me to seek my neighbor’s salvation and help protect him from delusion.

In my quest to return to Christ - to repent - I am necessarily returning to my neighbor and caring for his salvation.

When I live in repentance, I seek to increase the love of Christ. By loving Christ, loving the Truth is inseparable from hating falsehood. “Walking as children of the Light” is inseparable from reproving “the unfruitful works of darkness” (Ephesians 5:8).

All of the following are all inseparable from our repentance and growth in Christ:

Having the mind of Christ, loving the truth in the realm of ideas, loving Christ the Truth as a person, and bringing to bear the full weight of our patristic patrimony to shine the light of God on the mystery of iniquity so that the “blessedly uneasy,” those who have good uneasiness, and searching souls might find the harbor of salvation.

It is always both/and in Orthodoxy. This is an immensely important and interpretative key for us. Remember this: both/and.

He is both God and Man.

He is both Divine and Human.

There is both the Dogma and the Ethos.

He is both the Way and the Truth.

We live both the Mystery and we preach the Gospel (Kerygma).

We both return (our repentance) and are being sent (we become apostles).

We both cultivate the love of God, which is communion, and the love of our Neighbor, which is communion with our neighbor.

These things are inseparable. This is a key, key point in this whole discussion.

Another beloved brother and critic has complained that we are focusing on only one side of the crisis and it is the wrong side. He says that we need to be focusing almost exclusively on our own repentance and come to self-knowledge, for it is our indifference, our lack of fear of God, our lack of fulfilling the presuppositions of the Mysteries and approaching them impiously that has brought about this crisis.

I agree. I have actually said as much in previous podcasts. It seems to me that it is he and others who seem to be implying that we must only do one of the two. That is, only focus on ourselves, and not focus on the machinations of the enemy aimed against us.

But again: it is always both/and. We need to look at both. It is a temptation to become pietistic and ONLY say “we are sinful; we are awful; we must repent.” That is first, absolutely, but that is only half, or maybe a little more than half of the picture.

The rest of the picture is that there is a war on. And yes, we have given rights to the enemy through our sinfulness, but now let us not continue in delusion but let us repent. And part of that repentance is confessing Christ and becoming bold post-Pentecost preachers of him.

It includes obeying God rather than men. It means both keeping His Commandments - to eat His body and drink His blood and taking reasonable measures for the health of our brother out of love for Christ. “Have you seen your brother? You have seen your Christ.”

In short, the path of repentance passes through the opening of the churches.

Repentance means a change of orientation, and with that there is a change of perspective and we look at things with an enlightened perspective. Our critics say we must look exclusively to correcting our worldly way of life. Absolutely, this is the base, the basic problem always. Yet be careful, for part of that worldliness is assuming a compliant stance to the closing of our churches!

If we have a stance which is oriented correctly, that is we are in repentance, it will include keeping the churches open and calling out the lies in the realm of ideas and confessing Christ before the unbelievers.

The two are not opposed, but rather they are inseparable: return andcommunion; repentance and trust and faith; the preaching of repentanceand the confession of the faith; humility and the fear of God. It is always both/and. We should not focus only on one to the detriment of the other.

There are other questions which have been sent, not many critical, but we have already gone too long in this podcast.

I need to address some important announcements for all of you who are listeners, and now subscribers on YouTube.

THANK YOU to our many new subscribers. Over the last four weeks our subscribers have doubled. And that is a testimony to your thirst and your love for Christ. That you are seeking out the holy fathers and the patristic answer. And God willing, by your prayers, you will find them here on this channel. That is my goal, in any case. So thank you.

If you are a regular viewer of this podcast but have not yet subscribed - either on YouTube or one of the podcast platforms, I encourage you to do thatfor several reasons. First of all, it allows you to have access without much thinking about it. It will come to you in some kind of notification. But it also helps us reach more people. The larger the subscription base, the more likely that this video and others will reach more people.

And it also helps us to not focus on distribution and promotion of the podcast. We can focus on producing the podcast. So I encourage all of those who have not hit the bell and subscribed to do that for those reasons.

Also, go to the “community tab” on YouTube and check out an announcement that we made about a potential summer seminar that I am thinking of doing. And this would be a course, an eight-week course, once a week, two to three hours of lecture and question and answer through something like Zoom. And the topic would be, I am giving it the title “Orthodox Survival Course.”

I am taking this title from Fr. Seraphim Rose’s Orthodox Survival Course that he gave in the late 70s, just a few years before his repose. That was the culmination of years of reflection and research that he had done in helping his listeners then understand the present age, this age of apostacy and the last times that we are living in, through a historical and theological examination of the last thousand years of western Christian history.

I am not going to focus as much as Fr. Seraphim did on the historical aspect. I am going to be using that text for sure as one of the basic texts in the course, but I am going to add much more to that from other sources that have since come, in the saints that have lived since the 1970s.

So that is a potential course that could be offered to all of you. And I want to see how many people who are interested. So if you have not been over there, have not seen that announcement, go to the community tab on YouTube, check it out, and hit one of the answers there so we can get a real sense of what interest there is for such a course.

I want to finally say that there will be a short break over the next week or two because we have some very exciting developments here, some projects we are working on.

God willing, we will have two important interviews that I am going to be doing with ecclesiastical men here in Greece that I have a good relationship with and revere. I am going to be doing right here in this office I am going to do an interview with them. Then we will translate that and post it as an audio and as a video file for all of you. This is going to be continuing in the vein of the Orthodox Ethos, but also the contemporary situation. So this is very exciting, but in order for me to do that I am going to have to take a break. There will be fewer podcasts coming out over the next week to two weeks.

I ask your prayers as we work on that and prepare that for the sake of you and all those who are seeking salvation in this day and age.

Thank you for being here and I look forward to seeing you again soon in a further podcast.

Christ is risen!