by Archbishop Averky (Taushev) –
The enemy of the human race is employing all his efforts and all his means to pull it [the Orthodox Church] down, and he is widely supported in this by open and secret apostates from the true faith and Church, including even those who have betrayed their high vocations and oaths as clergymen and even as hierarchs heading certain individual churches.
In truth, we are experiencing a terrible time — a time such as has never before been seen in the history of Christianity, in the history of mankind! A time of almost total instability!
And insofar as we wish to remain faithful to true Orthodoxy, many obligations are placed upon us.
We must, as Bishop Ignatius [Brianchaninov] instructs us, avoid and protect ourselves from the Apostasy which is growing so rapidly in the world. We must defend ourselves against the corrupting spirit of the times to avoid its influence.
And to this end we must first of all understand and never forget:
- that at the present time not everything that bears the most holy and most dear name of Orthodoxy really is Orthodoxy — there now also exists pseudo-Orthodoxy, which we must fear and from which we must flee as from fire;
- that true Orthodoxy is only that which does not accept and does not permit in anything, either in teaching or in church practices, any sort of innovations opposed to the Word of God and the decrees of the Universal Church;
- that true Orthodoxy does not bless and does not indulge modern fashion — the morality and customs of the modern, corrupt world, which, even more than in Apostolic times, is lying in evil, for it is a world which has abandoned God;
- that true Orthodoxy considers only pleasing God and saving souls, not arrangements for temporary, earthly happiness, a career, and earthly advantages and possessions;
- that true Orthodoxy is spiritual, not natural and carnal, not attached to the earth — to earthly feelings and experiences.
– Archbishop Averky (Taushev)
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Excerpts from: On Apostasy. (Minor organizational edits and bolding of key words done by blog editors to enhance readability.)