Often, when reading the Holy Scriptures, we do not understand what we are doing, what Holy Scripture is, what the purpose of its writing is, and what the purpose of our reading the Holy Books is. Without answers to these seemingly unnecessary, rhetorical questions, reading the Bible, the works of the Holy Fathers, and Orthodox men and women who have felt and experienced the Mystery of the Triune God, the Beauty, the Kingdom of God which has come and is already here among us in power, and those partaking in the Truth being led into the mystery of the Resurrection, behind the veil of the Eighth, the Unending Day – the benefit will be minimal at best, and with an incorrect approach and setting of the spirit (mind), one can perish. There are plenty of examples: all heresies, heretical teachings justified by heresiarchs (founders – V.A.) with the help of the Bible and the Fathers; the entire Protestant world has entered into unenlightened darkness, having the Holy Bible as a guide and roadmap; all sects masquerading as Christian, referring to the Bible, defend their sin and their madness; and there are Protestants who recognize the seven ecumenical councils!!! They quote the Holy Fathers to confirm their delusions and hypocrisy, claiming that they understand correctly, authentically (without the Eucharist??! – V.A.), what the Fathers were talking about, selecting and tearing words out of context for their own perdition; Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics defend and justify their ideology and heretical teachings by referencing authorities: the Bible and the Holy Fathers, fitting and interpreting everything in their own way, not as it really is, not as the sacred writer understood it, but as it is convenient and profitable for a comfortable, carefree existence (in existence, not Life – V.A.) in the hell of sin, selfishness, envy, self-deception, cunning. (Someone will say: ‘Why did the father put a period, and did not include in this list the Orthodox, do not the Orthodox interpret the Holy Scripture and the Fathers in their own way?’ I would correct the question: not ‘in their own way’, but ‘differently’. And this ‘differently’ lies not in another, scholastic, secularized approach or methods of reading the Text, but in a radically different approach and vision of Scripture – in the plane of ontology and existence). And regarding people – not all Catholics live Catholicism (fortunately – V.A.), not all Protestants follow the deceitful teachings of Protestantism (fortunately – V.A.), and, unfortunately, not all Orthodox (a few – V.A.), walk in the light of Christ’s Resurrection, in the Fire that the Lord brought from heaven – the Holy Spirit. We are not talking about people (let all mouths be closed: the first to enter paradise is a thief! – V.A.), but about the spiritual setting, the worldview position, the ideals to which a person aspires: Christ or antichrist, the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of Satan, Life or existence in death and non-being, Sacrificial Divine Love or adultery – the egotistic devouring, use of the beloved, the object (!?) of love, etc. ‘Faith in the truth saves, and in lies, untruth, illusion – destroys, kills’ – say those experienced in the spiritual life. We fight for the person, we have one enemy – death. From these brief examples, one can understand that for the revelation of salvation in us, merely living according to the instructions: ‘fast’, ‘pray’, ‘read two chapters from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament per day’, ‘go to church, confess, receive communion’, and you will be healthy (healthy, happy – V.A.) is not enough! And they forget these false elders, blind guides of the blind, that God, Jesus Christ was crucified by people who believed in God (as they thought – V.A.), who fasted, prayed, gave alms, tithed for the temple, went to temple, confessed, received communion, knew the Scriptures of the Old Testament literally! Therefore, let us say again: ‘Faith in the truth saves…’ Thus, let us be attentive to our salvation, and not rejoice that we are believers, because when asked to account for our hope, we often respond (in despair – V.A.) with astonished silence. Now there is a great decline in the spiritual life of Christians, and not the last reason for this impoverishment is the inability, lack of skill against the ethical, moral background of the Bible and the Holy Scriptures to read the existential and ontological content and essence. Therefore, to revive the spiritual (not ethical, moral, but specifically Spiritual – V.A.) life, we must read the Holy Scriptures in existential and ontological categories! What is this? Or what does it mean? Let’s try to ponder together.
So many different words in the world, and none of them is without meaning. Therefore, if I do not know the reality to which a certain word points, then it is a hollow sound to me, it tells me nothing, it does not prompt me to anything, it does not evoke any feelings in me, in a word, a hollow sound. Knowledge about something is conveyed by a word, knowledge of something cannot be conveyed – it is direct experience, participation in the reality we know. The word always follows the experience and is addressed to someone who has this experience, because only a participant can understand what is being said, because they know. There are, conditionally speaking, two categories of knowledge – rational, intellectual, abstract knowledge about something and ontological, existential knowledge (knowledge – in theological language, – V.A.) of something. For example: an astronomer knows the distance from the Earth to the Moon, but does not know it. To know, to know – to become one with the known, to experience directly, ontologically the known reality. An astronomer describes the knowledge of distance with the abstract concept ‘meter’; mathematicians operate with abstract concepts: ‘point’, ‘line’, ‘plane’, ‘equilateral triangle’, which do not exist in nature (at least, no one has proven it in a laboratory – V.A.). They do not know the equilateral triangle, ontologically, existentially they have not experienced it (well, they have not even seen it – V.A.). Therefore, rational knowledge, which was born outside of knowledge, participation, true knowledge cannot be called (2+2=4 is identity, not truth – V.A.). The word (not knowing the reality it points to, or even the semantics of the word) can be learned by heart, like a parrot repeated, inserting it according to the rules of etiquette at a certain place, but it is not suitable for any kind of salvation-building, and even for worldly life – a hollow sound in the mouth… For example: ‘Kingdom of God’, ‘God the Father’, ‘Jesus Christ’,  ‘Holy  Spirit’,  ‘Holy  Trinity’,  ‘Church’, ‘Person’, ‘Salvation’, ‘Sin’, ‘Love’, ‘Hell’, etc. – what is it, or who is it, what are we talking about when we use one term or another, what reality does it (this term – V.A.) point to, what experience have we lived through? You need to experience this reality, the Truth, and then talk about it with those who also know this truth. ‘How few there are with whom one can talk about God, who know Him, not just heard about Him’ – lamented St. Silouan the Athonite. How to talk about colors with a person born blind if they have never seen them? What information will the word ‘green’ bring to such a blind person? How can one convey the beauty of the visible world to them? You can try playing the violin if the blind person hears!.. But this is the same as explaining the meaning of the word ‘meter’ to them. Thus, the blind person must first gain sight, and then see with their own eyes, and only then the word ‘green color’ becomes a correlation with the reality they experienced! It is possible to observe a pathetic picture when a blind person, who has never seen the light of God, lectures on painting, and between lectures proudly and confidently talks about their impressions after visiting an art gallery and viewing masterpieces of art! This is what we speak in parables about those ‘wise men’ who quote the Holy Scriptures where the above words, such as ‘Kingdom of God’, ‘Love’, which they have never known, are mentioned. With what pride, self-aggrandizement, self-satisfaction, and high opinion of themselves do ‘such wise men-philosophers’ race when they literally quote the apostles Paul, or John, or some other Mystic, and even indicate the chapter and verse in the Bible!