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Missionary Conversations
with
Protestant Sectarians
Part I
by
Rev. Kyril Zaits
From the New Sarov Press Edition
1993
Printed
with the blessing
of
His Grace
Bishop HILARION
Russian
Orthodox Church
Outside
of Russia
---------
Thaddean Fathers Publishing House Edition 2005
P. O. Box 1652, Columbus, NM 88029, U.S.A.
(505) 544-8279
Edited and
Republished with the Blessing
of
His
Eminence Metropolitan Archbishop +THADDEUS
American
Orthodox Church
North
American Orthodox Church
WHO MAY TEACH IN THE CHURCH
Mt. 28:19-20; Eph. 4:11; 1
Cor. 12:28; Bom. 10:15; 2 Tim. 1:11; 2:2; Heb. 5:4.
(Those who may teach in the
Church are: The apostles and their successors; only those set aside by Christ
Himself — those who are ordained; those who are sent by the Church; those
especially appointed and called by Christ, through His Church and in His Church.
But no one may appropriate the position and responsibility for himself as some
have done and others do even to this day).
PREFACE
This series of missionary
handbooks has been compiled and translated from the Russian, especially in order
to help younger Orthodox Christians maintain their balance in a world filled
with clever deceptions and subtle, satanic teachings hidden in flowery
philosophies and decorated with exciting slogans. Satan is no fool; he knows his
job well. He does not begin to lead one astray by presenting him with grossly
blatant falsehoods or with the open rejection of Christianity and morality. No,
he begins with some scrap of truth, labels it "Christian" and then,
having attracted one's attention, presents
one with just enough of the truth to entice his victim to follow him.
Thereafter, by ever graduating degrees, Satan introduces open falsehoods, nurturing the
pride which then leads the deceived one to create his own false teaching.
Such is what Protestantism various Denominations and Non-Denominations,
"Reformed" and so-called "Conservative" churches are about, and now-a-days
various jurisdictions of the Independent Catholics, even various parts of the
Roman jurisdiction of the Catholic Church as well as a small but growing number
of the Orthodox Jurisdictions of the Catholic Church are becoming by their
imbibing of those bitter waters.
The
"conversations" presented in this series have been selected
for two reasons: because they present clear cut refutations of heretical
teachings and because, in the process, they present correct Orthodox Catholic Christian
teachings in a clear, simple manner, more easily understandable
to younger readers.
These conversations are actual
events from real life and they may lead one to deep thinking. How zealous these
sectarians are in the spreading of their destructive heresies! With what energy
and daring they appear
everywhere, striving to impose their false teachings upon everyone in tones
which do not permit objections. If, however, they encounter someone in the midst
of their listeners who is familiar with, their twisting of the Scriptures and
their craftiness, they soon vanish.
On many occasions, though, they
are successful in tearing some weak member from the Church established by Christ, and
leading that person on their road to destruction. Such a lost one is usually an
uninformed person, who does not often pause to think his thoughts through to the
end.
These terrible attacks against
the One, Holy, Orthodox, Catholic and Apostolic Church are increasing almost daily, and it is
become no small matter for those
who are firm in the faith.
Our love and unity extends to the weak as well as the
strong. It is imperative that our young people and our weaker members be taught
the truths of the Holy Orthodox Catholic Christian Church and it is
imperative that we all redouble our prayers
and support for sound Orthodox Christian missionary and teaching efforts everywhere.
For the parent
who really has a concern and care about his children and their salvation, three publications; The
Orthodox Word, Orthodox Life and the
Orthodox Christian Witness* should be coming into your home and read
attentively by both parents and children. There are also a number of other helpful
publications available from the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, N.Y., the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline,
Massachusetts, and may other publications from the Thaddean Fathers of the
American Orthodox Church .
We ask parents not to betray
their own children, but to provide for their true-Orthodox education. Their
eternal lives depend upon it.
We also ask those in the clergy of various
jurisdictions in North America not to betray the trust, commission and charge of
their vows to the One, Holy, Orthodox, Catholic and Apostolic Church, for to do
so automatically causes for the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit that is, to depart
from them, leaving them void as an empty vessel, no longer true servants of Our
Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit abandons them and those who
follow them as reprobate unless they, in this life, come to recognize the
sinfulness of their ways in accepting unfounded teachings not in accord with
those truths, those rightful understandings, handed down to us through time and history from the Apostles
themselves.
The sum and substance of what follows applies to
all who call themselves "Christian" whether Protestant, Roman, Orthodox, Celtic,
Anglican, Lutheran, Baptist, Pentecostal, Mormon (if they could even consider
themselves "Christian" by any sense and meaning of the term and word), Church of
Christ, Denominational, Non-Denominational and many others.
· The
Orthodox Word, Platina, Calif. 93940
· Orthodox
Life, Jordanville, N.Y. 13361
· Orthodox Christian Witness, 9223 – 20th Ave.
N.E., Seattle, Wash. 98115
·
Thaddean Fathers Publication House (American Orthodox Church), P. O. Box 1652,
Columbus, New Mexico 88029
ON SEPTEMBER 1, 1927, Father
Kyril Zaits had the occasion to be in the Ascension parish on the feast day of
St. Simeon Stylites. Every year on this day there was a
large gathering of people. Many came by
train from distant places and returned home on the evening train.
This time there were many
passengers, particularly peasants in the third class coach. There were also
members of the local intelligentsia, merchants and several Jewish people to be
seen.
The time was after 10 P.M.
and some of the passengers were dozing off, while others, on raised bunks, were
preparing to sleep. Talking could be heard through out the entire coach since
the compartment was not closed. Suddenly, in the compartment next to mine,
some passenger began to speak especially
passionately and loudly. General conversation died down and Father Kyril
was roused from his dozing.
The speaker, a young man of
small stature, began to walk about the coach, inviting everyone to listen to
him. Evidently many people became interested.
"I was a
great sinner. I did not know what spiritual life was ..., " said the young
passenger, "but now here I am a believer! I heard secret voices calling me to
salvation. I was converted and I became a different person. I was saved by dear
Jesus. With his own blood he washed away my sins ... I now have no sins ... I am
holy ... Christ is my brother..." etc.
While he spoke of himself, of
his former sins and present holiness (and he spoke much), the public listened in
silence and some women turned to the wall in order to doze off. They probably
were not listening to such a speech for the first time.
Then
however, the sectarian preacher began to touch upon Orthodox dogmas,
especially the reverencing of ikons and objections began to be raised
by the passengers.
"So you worship the ikon of
Simeon Stylites," said the Baptist. "Ikons are unnecessary. This is idol worship! One cannot bow down
before pictures. The word of God forbids it ... It is necessary to
pray only to dear Jesus ... I was
wounded twice, was seriously ill, but I turned to Jesus Christ, prayed and
became well without any ikons ...".
Objections were heard. One
irritated peasant asked the sectarian:
"What are you doing here,
agitating us? I likewise was seriously wounded, but I went to the church, asked
our priest to serve a thanksgiving service
before the ikon of the Mother of God and I became well."
Thereupon a general discussion began. The sectarian attempted to
answer all
the objections and began to sprinkle his speech with quotations
from the Holy Scripture- His
speech became disunited. Texts were introduced out of context and often
pointlessly. It seemed that he would achieve a victory of sorts simply by
speaking endlessly.
One could not tell if this
eruption of words and playing with Holy Scripture would last long, but the
argument had gradually become very heated, so Fr. Kyril, unable to sleep,
decided to interject.
The
unexpected appearance of a priest at once cooled the sectarian.
Everyone
became silent.
"You have spoken quite a bit
tonight, my friend," began Fr. Kyril, turning to the protestant, "but you have
made precious little sense. You have talked around and touched upon some things,
but I for one cannot tell what it is that you are getting at. You present
yourself as 'saved' and you have tried very hard to convince all these people who
are believers to accept that Never-the-less, it is clear that you are at enmity
with Orthodox (Catholic) Christianity.
"Please allow me to ask you
several clear questions and be so kind as to reply to them clearly, without any
misleading eloquence.
"You are quite probably a
preacher — of which confession is of no significance to us at the present. One
thing however is clear; you are not in the Church of (established by) Christ. Tell us, have you
preserved the great spiritual wealth which the Holy Apostles have given to
Christ's Church, or have you never thought
of this? In. fact, have you ever even heard of this wealth?
The sectarian remained silent.
Father Kyril continued, "Do you
have the priesthood? No? But it has been in the Church from Apostolic times. It
was passed on by the apostles and it is clearly spoken of in that very Holy
Bible which you are now holding in your
hands.
[Deacons: Phil. 1:1; 1
Tim. 3:8, 10, 13; etc.
Presbyters:
Acts 14:23, 20:17; Tit. 1:5; 1 Cor. 4:1; 2 Cor. 3:6; etc. Rom.
1:9, 15:15. Bishops: Acts
1:20; Phil. 1:1; ITim. 3:1; etc.]
"Have you preserved all the
Mysteria (Holy mysteries and sacraments): Baptism, Chrismation, Repentance, the Holy Eucharist,
Marriage, Holy Orders and Unction? These things were already established in the
times of the apostles and they are spoken of in the holy books of the New
Testament.
[Scriptures relating to
the Church. Most of the relevant Scripture is quoted in full at the end of
this series. This is because the King James Version, for all its great beauty,
is frequently unclear. Not only does its syntax and style often render the
meanings of many verses nebulous, but, in fact, the understood meanings of many
words have altered greatly since the KJV was first issued. Moreover, there
are some few instances of actual mistranslation in the KJV which have been
willfully continued in later versions of the Bible created by non-Orthodox.
The Amplified New Testament of the Zondervan Press clarifies some of what we are
talking about.]
"Do you obey the Holy Gospel by honoring the Mother of God?
Lk. 1:28;
42, esp. 48.
"Do you have prayerful
intercourse with the Heavenly Church, with the holy apostles whose writings are
in your hands right now, with the saints, martyrs, confessors and all the
righteous?
"Do you have prayerful
intercourse with angels ? Do you pray to your guardian angel?
"All this was in the Apostolic
Church and all this remains with us in the Orthodox Church.
"Do you have prayerful
intercourse with deceased fathers, mothers, grandparents and all those who have
reposed in the faith ? Do you pray for the dead, or have you forgotten about
them so that death for you has proven to be stronger than the love of Christ?
Don't you know that they prayed for the dead in the Apostolic Church?
"You do not
honor ikons nor do you honor the life-giving
Cross of the Lord. And do you sign
yourself with the Holy Cross? Do you wear the cross on your breast in accordance
with the words of the apostle — 'bearing the reproach that he bore'. [Heb.
13:13. (The cross which Orthodox Christians wear is an ever-present reminder
that we must bear persecution, humiliation and suffering for Christ's sake as we
read in the "Beatitudes". It is also the symbol of Christ and thus is an open
confession that we belong to Him — it is this open confession of Him that
brings about the persecutions we must often bear.)] All this was known in the
beginning Apostolic Church.
"My questions are clear and
simple. Answer them. Why are you silent?
Well, what is there for you to say when you do not maintain any of this?
Can't you see that this is a great spiritual wealth?
"Then tell us," continued Father
Kyril, "what do you have? Faith? Yes, you brag of it and call upon these people
to believe in Christ Your invitation, however, is late: all of these people,
with the exception of two or three Jews, have believed in Christ for a long time
already; they have been in the Church since childhood. Calling upon Orthodox
Christians to come to believe in Christ is foolish vanity. We
all believe incomparably more strongly than
you. We believe so strongly that we preserve all that has been handed
down to us and we fulfill all that has been
commanded — you cannot say this of yourselves.
"Call upon the Jews to believe
in Christ, go to the heathens, to Mohammedans
— preach there, but not here amongst Orthodox believers.
"You cannot give us faith for we
already have it. What can you give? What
kind of spiritual treasure? Absolutely nothing. You come to us as a
beggar in rags.
"There was, however, something
you said which was completely contrary to Christ's teaching: pride and self
conceit. We have heard only of your sinlessness, your holiness, about which you
bragged and boasted. But this does not deceive us. We remember the words of the
Apostle about the Christians of his own time: 'We all sin much'. [cf. 1 Jn. 1:8,
"If we claim to be sinless, we are self-deceived and strangers to the truth."].
"Could it be that you
sectarians, in your lives, are better than the first Christians? The Apostle
Paul says of himself, 'It is not to
be thought that I have already
achieved all this. I have not yet reached perfection, but I press on, hoping to
take hold of that for which Christ once took hold of me. My friends, I do not
reckon myself to have hold of it yet.. .'. [Phil.
3:12-13.]
"And you believe that you have
surpassed even the Holy Apostle in spiritual perfection? The Apostle calls
himself the "Chief of sinners', [1
Tim. 1:15] but you call
yourself 'holy'! ?
"Don't you see the absurdity of
your boasting and on what a dangerous road you're walking?"
The young man was silent.
Shortly the train came up to a station and some passengers reluctantly left this
late night conversation. When the train began to move again, the priest
continued.
"I would like to call your
attention to one more thing. You are holding a Bible in your hands. You know and
admit that every word in the Bible is the
unalterable truth. Good. We Orthodox
also acknowledge this. I would say that you are a Baptist, yes? Let us
assume that there is an Adventist standing next to you, and over there a
.Methodist and next to him a member of another Protestant sect and so on. Let
us say that there would be several hundred
men gathered here since now Protestant sects number in the hundreds. Each man
will be holding a Bible. You all acknowledge
the Bible as your only source of faith. You
all preach that the Holy Spirit speaks by your lips. Please tell us,
then, why you do not all teach the same thing? Why do you Protestants consider
one another as being lost? Do you mean
to say that the Holy Spirit says one thing to one, and another thing to a
second? Did this ever cross your mind ?
"Here is a small example for
you and it would be good for the rest of you to pay close attention to it also.
Let us assume that a jug of crystal clear
water was brought here. Each one of us is
holding an absolutely clean glass. Let each
of us scoop up clear water with his glass from the common vessel. In all
the glasses there will be seen absolutely identical clean water.
"This young man has a Bible in
his hands; this is the source of the purest water. Why is it that when he scoops
up water from it, when the Methodist, Adventist, Lutheran and all the rest scoop
up water from it, they get un-identical water, un-identical teaching?
"It is very simple. Their glasses are not clean. The glasses
are their reason, their weak human
minds. Their minds are not clean; they are
full of much sophistry and much destructive fantasy. All of this they
apply to the most pure water, to God's word. Does one have to be so wise to see
that their teachings are muddled, contradictory to one another and unhealthy,
just as dirty water is not healthy?"
Father Kyril paused and turned to the Baptist preacher.
"I have
finished for the time being. Now you, my friend,
have achieved the interest of
these fellow-travelers of ours and you may give replies and explanations to all
these questions which have been presented to you, and we shall all listen."
The preacher did not begin to speak at once. It was necessary
for him to come out of a somewhat difficult situation, especially since some of
the passengers were beginning to make unflattering remarks about him among
themselves.
Then, without pathos, in a quieter voice, he began:
"You heard the priest just now
speaking about ikons. I will read to you what the Holy Scripture says about
ikons."
Thereupon, he began to read
slowly from certain verses of the prophetic books — Isaiah, Jeremiah — about idols. During the
reading the Baptist explained and suggested that here, it was precisely saying
that ikons are idols.
When the reading had finished
Fr. Kyril spoke up, "We have listened to your reading about idols but there are
neither heathens nor idols here. You said you would read about ikons. Very well,
then read to us about ikons. Idols don't interest us."
"There is
nothing said about ikons in the Bible!" the Baptist retorted.
"Are you really telling the
truth?" asked the priest. "I don't believe that you are so ignorant as to not
know where ikons are spoken of in the Holy Scripture. You know very well, but
you don't want to read it. It doesn't fit into your calculations.
"Very well, I will indicate the
place for you. Find the twenty-fifth chapter of the book of Exodus and read it."
[Esp. Ex. 25:18-19 (make two golden Cherubim of beaten work);
26:2, 31, 32 ("... with ikons of Cherubim worked into them." The KJV has
"images of cherubim", but the difference between these images and idols is quite
clear — they are ikons.)]
Note: There is a big difference in meaning and understanding as between an
"Image" and an "Ikon" or "Icon".
The young man hesitated, but the people began to demand that he read it.
Unwillingly, he sought out the indicated place. He began to read slowly, as if
thinking of what to say. When he read about
the ark of the covenant and the golden cherubims on top of the ark,
the priest turned to him with the question:
'Please tell us, the cherubims
which Moses made of gold according to God's command, are they not idols
according to you?"
"That was in the Old Testament"
replied the Protestant. "We are living in the New Testament and we don't need
the Old Testament... "
"Is that so ?" asked the priest.
"But when you wanted to read about idols in order to lead the listeners into
error, then the Old Testament was necessary. It is a great sin to treat God's
word in this manner, and you well know how
our Saviour speaks about those who lead others, lesser than they, into
error and temptation."
The Baptist, feeling the
awkwardness of his position, again began to read something more in reference to
idols.
"He always comes back to these
idols of his!" Father Kyril said. "Well, if you do not want to accept the
testimony of the Old Testament about the Divine descent of holy images, let us
turn to the New Testament. Read several
of the beginning verses from the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the
Hebrews." [This reading is introduced specifically to show the difference
between "images" as spoken of in the Ten Commandments and ikonographic images
such as God commanded Moses to make.]
The sectarian fell silent. We
heard no more of his reading and talking. Gradually, the farther passengers
began to fall asleep, lulled by the rhythmic clacking of the train's wheels.
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