The world is full of people who want to fight evil - they are indignant at it, gnashing their teeth, cursing, making more and more powerful weapons and using them... But what is evil anyway? Where does it come from? Who created the devil? Before fighting, they conduct thorough reconnaissance, try to find out everything they can about the enemy - and the fight against evil must begin not with fighting, but with reasoning and understanding. Who are we fighting with? How? What is this war being fought for?
Corrado Giaquinto (1703-1766), “The Devil Before God”
On the one hand, Christianity is a very militant religion. The apostles make no secret of the fact that becoming a Christian means joining the active army. You will face hardship, perhaps hardship, persecution, or even death. If you complain that church life is not comfortable enough, you have forgotten that this is a trench, not a sanatorium.
On the other hand, this battle does not proceed in the same way as earthly battles - its most advanced warriors, the monks, have not harmed a fly in their entire lives. No one was suppressed, crushed, or forced into obedience, but on the contrary, they themselves remain in contrition and obedience. What can we say about the monks - the martyrs, the highest example of Christian warfare, do not show themselves as strong soldiers, experienced in handling deadly weapons that kill their enemies. On the contrary, these are people who accept death without resistance.
Moreover, our Military Leader himself neither killed, nor wounded, nor mutilated, nor intimidated anyone - when they expected him to destroy his enemies, he himself accepted death at their hands.
This is an unusual and frightening kind of courage - it has remained unusual and frightening all these two thousand years. The Holy Apostle Peter had enough courage to rush to the defense of the Lord with a sword, against clearly superior enemy forces. But the Lord said to him: “Return your sword to its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matt. 26:52) And after a short time, Peter denied three times - when he was required to simply admit that he, too, “is one of the disciples.” this man".
Because the courage that the Lord requires is unlike the courage of this world. Just as the war that He is waging is not similar to the wars that are being waged in this world. This is a war with a much, much more terrible enemy, and something much, much more important depends on its development.
We Christians have unique information, thanks to which we see the world in a completely different coordinate system. And we understand that it is much larger - it has a spiritual dimension, much more extensive and important than the material world that we perceive with our senses. This dimension is not located somewhere in another universe - it permeates the material world and actively interacts with it. Powerful spiritual beings are near us - God's angels extend their cover over us and protect us from evil. Although we do not see them, they take an active part in our lives. But not all inhabitants of the spiritual world are good. It is engulfed in rebellion and civil war. As the book of Revelation says, “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought [against them], but they did not stand, and there was no longer room for them in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast out to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev. 12:7-9)
Even before the fall of man, a powerful angel rebelled against God and turned into the one whom Scripture calls the devil (that is, the slanderer) and Satan (that is, the adversary), the dragon and the serpent. He carried away with him some of the angels who turned into “spirits of wickedness in high places.” These spiritual rebels continually seek to destroy God's creation—and especially the relationship between God and man.
Although we, as a rule, do not see angels - and demons (and we would not see them for centuries), they manifest themselves in our lives - first of all, prompting us to certain thoughts and actions. As the Gospel says, it was Satan who gave Judas the idea to betray the Savior, he also encouraged Ananias and Sapphira to lie to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:3), he uses every opportunity to tempt Christians (1 Cor. 7:5), he uses various tricks , and even pretends to be an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14), he deceives the nations in order to induce them to rebel against God (Rev. 20:7).
You can cite other similar verses of Scripture, but the picture is clear - evil is not a blind element. Behind the evil of the world there is a personal, purposefully acting spiritual force, or, taking into account other fallen spirits, forces. They are our enemies, and it is with them that we are waging war. As the holy Apostle Paul says, “... because our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places. For this purpose, take on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on the evil day and, having done everything, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girded with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; and above all, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery arrows of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Eph. 6:12-17)
What is this war being fought for?
Human wars are fought over resources and territory, dominion and control. Of course, this is not what the war between God and Satan is about. God is the Creator of everything visible and invisible, He is the undeniable Ruler of the world, which He created and maintains in existence. Satan is merely a fallen and rebellious creation. But there is something much more important than the entire universe, than all the stars and galaxies - the immortal souls of people. It is for them that the fight is being waged. God created people (like angels) free and wants to lead them to eternal life in love and joy; Satan seeks to draw people into his rebellion in order to ultimately destroy them. The expression “battle for minds and hearts” may sound like a cliche, but in this case that is exactly what it is - a battle for the souls of people. Neither God nor the devil are interested in geopolitics - or rather, they are interested in it only insofar as it somehow affects the eternal salvation of specific individuals. Your soul in the eyes of God is much more important than the whole world, all its resources and wealth, empires and kingdoms, nations and military alliances. As the Lord says, “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36)
The only battle that has eternal consequences is the battle for the souls of people, because it is people who were created for eternal life, which they can forever gain or lose. Therefore, the war is for your soul - and the souls of your neighbors. The devil, out of hatred for people, definitely wishes them temporary disasters - but his main goal is to destroy their immortal souls.
How? By tearing us away from fellowship with Christ - through sin and unbelief. What weapon? Lies.
What do we know about our enemy?
First of all, he is a liar. As the Lord says, “He was a murderer from the beginning and did not stand in the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks his own way, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44) The devil is an experienced manipulator. He knows how to use people - their hopes, fears, dreams, grievances - against themselves. He is a master of what these days are called "psychological warfare." Actually, his war is psychological in nature. To operate in the world, he needs the help of people - whom he takes advantage of and deceives.
He is like a human scammer who knows how to charm his victims, gain their complete trust, appeal to their best feelings and make them feel literally in seventh heaven - chosen, special, how to inspire them with false hopes and raise unrealistic expectations in them. The fundamental difference here, however, is that victims of scammers are most often deprived of money and property, albeit significant ones - for example, an apartment; and the devil comes to destroy the immortal soul.
The devil knows how to be extremely attractive and persuasive; Unlike the businessman from the joke who sold refrigerators to Eskimos, he sells not just useless, but deadly harmful things - death under the guise of life, lies under the guise of truth, hell under the guise of heaven.
He knows how to bring people to the most ardent, selfless belief in the most pathetic lies. He knows how to convince a National Socialist or Bolshevik that the mass murder of innocent people is a wonderful thing for which posterity will be grateful to him. He knows how to convince a terrorist that by blowing himself up along with random and innocent people, he will go to heaven.
He knows how to make people trust deceivers as if they were revealing the truth, and destroyers as if they were saviors.
He is always ready to come to the aid of a person who seeks to justify his sin and destructive stupidity, to encourage and inspire those who are walking along the path of destruction.
He can always portray anger as righteous anger, stupidity as wisdom, crime as a feat. He is a propagandist so brilliant that all earthly propagandists are pitiful apprentices. He knows how to offer everyone his own bait - he will try to draw someone into the occult, someone to strengthen them in rock-solid materialism; to some he will instill ideas of national superiority, to others, on the contrary, the dream of the brotherhood of peoples - only he will draw the path to this brotherhood through rivers of blood.
There is only one truth, whether it suits us or not; a lie can be anything - it is not surprising that different forms of lies can fiercely fight each other; One of the devil’s favorite pastimes is to make people hate, persecute and kill a friend for the sake of his inventions, with which he seduced both sides.
That is why it is so dangerous to fight evil - the evil with which a person is fighting can be quite real, serious, outrageous - but at the same time he himself can act on the side of another evil. And the devil will try to reduce a person’s criticality towards his actions - and the actions of “his own”. Since I fight “evil,” I am good, and since I am good, what claims can there be against me?
Very often it happened - and happens - that people fight with demons to the shrill laughter of these very demons. Because at this time they are sitting on the back of their neck.
Does this sophistication of the devil remove responsibility from man? No. Scripture implies that a person can say no. And the goal of the evil one is to destroy our soul, which would be impossible without our complicity. The deception of the evil one is something that a person agrees to himself. A person can hide this moment of agreement from himself (in which the evil one will undoubtedly help him) - but it exists.
There comes a time when a person decides that he would rather obey the devil than God. Or, since the devil never gives a calling card, he chooses someone or something that is not God as the guiding force of his life. Tribe, nation, theory, ideology, money, pleasure.
Sometimes a person can choose religion instead of God - yes, the devil can be deeply religious, even zealously pious. (If you think that this only happens to Muslims, you don’t know history well; modernity, however, either).
Sergei Khudiev “Scum in cassocks” or a scoundrel in a jacket? Stalin against Orthodoxy
“Now a person can call himself a Stalinist - and this does not mean absolutely no obligations; he can call himself Orthodox - and this, too, in his opinion, does not require anything. A person can call himself both – and be sincerely amazed when such a confession is found meaningless.” Sergei Khudiev - about the futility of another attempt to combine Orthodoxy and Stalinism.
On the “Russian People's Line” Ilya Pozhidaev published an article “The organic relationship between Stalin and Orthodoxy, or Stalin - canonized!”, in which he called the new martyrs “scum in robes.” This caused an understandable reaction, with many commenting on the author’s personal qualities in the most unfavorable way. The point, however, is not the author's characteristics.
Many Orthodox people - bishops, priests, monks and nuns, pious laymen - suffered martyrdom during the reign of Stalin. There are very few options for being his apologist here.
The first option is that Stalin did not know or for some reason could not prevent what was happening. But a ruler whose organs of his state, including in the immediate vicinity of the capital, are torturing and killing many thousands of his citizens, and he is either unaware or powerless to prevent this, is some kind of amazing nonentity, not just not a great ruler, but not a ruler at all. It is completely impossible to attribute any achievements to a person who could not, presumably, even achieve an end to these killings.
But it is not only the surviving documents with his signature that prevent Stalin from being considered such a pathetic nonentity, but also his public speeches, in which he thanks the state security agencies for the work they have done.
The author, apparently, understands that this line of defense does not work - some things could be attributed to “abuses on the ground,” but not repressions of this scale. Therefore, he can only justify the murders themselves - and this inevitably leads to the condemnation of the victims.
You can be an ill-mannered young man, you can be a person of outstanding knowledge and intelligence - the problem “how to justify Stalin without condemning his victims” is logically unsolvable. There are only three possible options - either Stalin did not know/could not interfere (then he is not a great ruler and not a ruler at all), or he knew and could have interfered, but approved - then either he is a villain, or those whom he sent to death are villains , and they deserve it. Either the bastard is in a jacket, or the bastards are in cassocks.
The author chooses the latter option - and, with commendable directness, says it out loud. However, regardless of whether you say it out loud or not, it is inevitable.
But here we have another problem - the problem of loyalty. Many of those who were tortured and killed at that time were canonized by the Church as new martyrs. To blaspheme them means to rebel against the Church and blaspheme her saints. Either we glorify the new martyrs, and then Stalin is a persecutor of the holy Church and a murderer of saints. Either we glorify Stalin, and then the new martyrs are “scum in robes.” If we are people of the Church, then the new martyrs are certainly ours, but their tormentors are not. “I will not pour out their bloody drink offerings, neither will I mention their names with my mouth” (Ps. 15:4).
But on the other hand, real, consistent Stalinists cannot have anything in common with the “reactionary clergy.” Comrade Stalin, as is evident from his extensive legacy - his complete works are online - was a faithful successor of Lenin's work, a Bolshevik, a materialist and an atheist. Trying to combine Marxism-Leninism (especially in its Stalinist version) with Orthodoxy means betraying both sides.
Here we are dealing with a phenomenon that could not have happened in that era - the destruction of the concept of devotion and dedication. In the era of Stalin, it was clear to everyone that the title of communist imposes very serious obligations on a person, both in terms of the views he professes and in terms of behavior. In particular, he was obliged to share, proclaim and implement an ideology that fundamentally denied God and was fundamentally hostile to any worship of God. In those years, they also confessed Stalin as their hope, teacher and leader.
A person who defined himself as an Orthodox Christian took on even more serious obligations - which for many resulted in martyrdom. Confess the right faith, openly proclaim Christ (and not someone else) as your Hope, Teacher and Leader.
Now a person can call himself a Stalinist - and this does not mean absolutely no obligations; he can call himself Orthodox - and this, too, in his opinion, does not require anything. A person can call himself both - and be sincerely amazed when such a confession is found meaningless. It is a postmodern refusal to take anything seriously as actually existing, making demands and imposing obligations.
Hence the calls to canonize Stalin - wild and blasphemous from the point of view of both Stalinist communism and the Orthodox faith. Hence the occult Stalinism of Prokhanov and the Izborsk Club. Hence the fantastic eclecticism of Night Wolves, who mix the American biker subculture - with clear nods to the heavy metal Satanism of the 1980s - with icons, red flags, crosses and portraits of Stalin.
It doesn't seem to occur to people that symbols have meaning. That by declaring yourself an adherent of one faith, you renounce another. That words mean something, and by uttering them, a person takes upon himself obligations to heaven or hell, obligations for which he will be asked.
But words have meaning - and words have weight.
Words represent certain concepts. They don't mean what you want right now. They have content that does not depend on me or you - only this allows them to be used in communication. The word “Orthodoxy” means, in the most dry language possible, a religious tradition that includes certain ideas about God, about the world, about right and wrong.
Just like the words “Harley Davidson” refer to the brand of motorcycle. If a person claims that his bicycle is a Harley Davidson, he is objectively mistaken. If he is also trying to sell it as a Harley, then it would be appropriate to say out loud - no, this is in no way a Harley Davidson. “Orthodox Stalinism” is not Orthodoxy, and it is not even Stalinism in the sense in which it was understood under Stalin. This is a postmodern mess in the head.
The Orthodox faith is a covenant with God. These are relationships that the Bible compares to marriage, citizenship, adoption, and military service. Relationships that impose very serious obligations and require the renunciation of everything that is incompatible with them. “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; You cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table and the demons’ table” (1 Cor. 10:21).
If you are with the Church, you cannot be with an atheist and a fierce persecutor of the Church. The author who glorifies Stalin and blasphemes the new martyrs simply reminds us of this obviousness.
