Therefore, when someone convinces you (whether from outside through a priest or some other madman-tempter, or maybe a thought will arise in the head – whether from the devil, or from one’s own fantasies and dreaminess), that you are a believer in Jesus Christ, and you have not personally experienced the Holy Spirit, have not met Christ face to face – do not believe (that is, do not trust – this is delusion and a lie). In the best case You – trusting the Church, that is, declared, who are preparing for baptism into the Body of Christ, into the community of the Saints! Although even here, do not rush to call yourself trusting, if you are not trying to perform ALL Christ’s commandments, ALL to the last!!! But to perform Christ’s commandments, you need to carefully learn in the Church, to be declared by the Church!!!
So, who are we: believers in Christ, faithful to Christ, or declared, who trust the Church and are preparing for a meeting with Christ (for marriage with Christ)? Answer: unbelievers! unfaithful! untrusting! Note that Christians – these are the faithful to Christ (just as married or married – these are those who are faithful to their husband or wife)!!! So, are we Christians? No! We are not even declared! Christians, that is, believers (faithful) have always been a small flock, not millions!
Often in confessions, people confess that they have no faith!? But precisely to repent in what we have no faith is a sin, a mistake! How can you repent in what does not depend on us?! You need to repent in that you do not labor properly, to trust the Church, or – in unfaithfulness in the process of trust (because this is exactly what depends on us! and we are responsible for trust-faithfulness)! You say that you have no faith! And I will ask you: what have you done to obtain faith (to receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit, to know God!)? Faith is acquired, accepted by the feat of trust-fidelity to the bloody sweat of self-denial and self-sacrifice, until trust becomes absolute self-sacrifice to Christ (when there is no hope for oneself, for one’s own strengths anymore). For an example of acquiring faith look in the Book of Genesis about the life of Abraham! Abraham became a believer (knowing God, as far as possible in the Old Testament) after a long period of pre-faith, a period of trials, with which God prepared him for experiencing faith, for a meeting with God! Abraham became a believer not when he heard a voice, a word that indicated what to do, but after a long creative performance of this word! (for more details about the life of Abraham, talk to Evgeniy Avdeyenko in his eponymous book, where he discusses this question in detail). About how to acquire faith (more precisely, how to become capable of receiving the Gift of the Holy Spirit, meeting the Lord Jesus Christ) we will talk in detail in the next parts (although we talk about it quite a lot in Parts I and II).
Each of those who do not trust Christ, the Church (that is, Christians, members of the Body of Christ, whose sign is Truth and Love!), let them sincerely ask themselves: on what basis do I not trust Christ and Christians, do I have arguments with which I can confirm my distrust of the Church! Christ says: trust Me by my word (by My teaching), and if not, then trust Me by My deeds! You can ask Christ (the Church): why should I trust you by your teaching? In response, the Church says: because we speak the Truth, there is no falsehood in the mouths of Christians (do not forget, Christians – these are the faithful to Christ, those who noticeably carry the Grace of the Holy Spirit in themselves, or faithful to the meeting with the Risen Christ face to face in the Holy Spirit!!!, and not those who do not know that there is the Holy Spirit, even if they were baptized a thousand times by the most canonical priests!) (no one can convict Me of sin – says Christ and the Church), the Christian teaching is the most complete and there are no contradictions in it, and Christians answer all questions that the human mind can contain and ask!!! But do not forget that the teaching of Christians – not from people, but from God, from God-knowledge (arguments inquire from Alexey Osipov, he talks about this in detail in his lectures!). Why should I trust the Church, Christ by deeds?! Because the deeds of Christ, the Church – the purest selfless, sacrificial Love!!!
And this ‘You may object to these two proofs-arguments that should have prompted trust in the Church: were there not heresies in the church, did Christians not err, were there not Crusades, did the Orthodox not bless the killing of the Orthodox (for example, the satanic Russian Orthodox Church and its branch, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, blessed the fascist Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2014-2015), are there not now in Christianity denominations accusing each other of heresy, ignorance?! The answer: Christians, Orthodox do not kill, do not err, but abide in Truth and Love!!! Therefore, those who killed and kill, hardened and are hardening in the darkness of ignorance and heresy are not Christians (not Orthodox), but people who have no relation to the Church (unless they are in the rank of the proclaimed – but this is almost impossible, because the proclaimed are those who trust the Church, are already in obedience, although they may be tempted, because they do not yet fully know Christ and the Holy Spirit: but there cannot be millions of tempted proclaimed, there are only a few!), but only call themselves Christians, Orthodox (‘argument’: that they are baptized!?), but in essence are pagans, and often even Satanists! Therefore, there are always few Christians, and not many proclaimed, that is, those who trust the Church and are preparing (studying diligently!!!) for baptism, for marital life with Christ in His Body (parish, Church)! So why do I not trust Christ?! Because I have not seen Christians! A strong argument, but unwise (more precisely, foolish!), because by justifying myself, that I have not seen Christians, I do not become Happy (or Happier)! Yes, the misfortune – the Body of the Church in the second phase is decreasing and decreasing, there are fewer and fewer Christians! But they exist! Because we still are, because the world still stands, the flood has not yet come! Therefore, if you want to be Happy here and now: seek and you will find, if not Christians, at least the proclaimed, knock and it will be opened to you, ask and it will be given to you! There are still communities trying to become parishes, bodies – so seek, knock, ask, but sincerely and with discernment, and the Lord will give you the Holy Spirit, and show you under the guise of deadness those glowing coals of communities or send a mentor who will help find a parish!!! (If you are not yet in the church – look for a community that is trying to become a body from a heap, and if you are already a member of a heap – then create a parish on its basis, try to grow into each other, into the Eucharistic Body of Christ!). The criterion by which I can check whether someone can be trusted or not – Truth and Love, if one component is missing, then trusting that being or community (which I want to trust, give myself to) is mindless!!! Therefore, let us make efforts (this phrase is for those who have not yet acquired (tangibly, hypostatically) the Holy Spirit, those who have never been to the ‘third heaven’ of hypostatic existence, those who have not known (even for a moment!) God) in order to reach trust in the second phase, that is, to become proclaimed (to shorten the path to deification in the third phase)!!! – ‘Faith comes from hearing,’ says the Apostle Paul. In this context, it is about trust. We hear with the ear (mind) the Gospel and, trusting (responsibly) the apostle or missionary, we check (extremely judiciously!) – whether it really is as it is proclaimed! (Those who trusted the word of the Gospel and checked the stated on experience, affirmed that God is True, that everything that is proclaimed is Truth). The Church not only preaches the Kingdom of God, which has come in power, but also provides the way and methods to check the Gospel: ‘come and see’, ‘taste and see’… We complain that we have no faith!? But we want to believe vividly!? Let’s not forget that faith is not an agreement with the theoretical propositions of the Gospel, it is not a signature under the dogmatic teaching of the Church. Faith is the dogmas about the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation lived through on one’s own experience; faith is experiencing God as one’s life, that is, becoming a participant in the Trinitarian life, becoming a theologian (theologian): ‘I am in the Father, the Father in Me’, ‘I and the Father are one’, ‘it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’… Thus, faith is not from us, it is a gift of God, it is grace, it is what happens exclusively at the initiative of God (of course, taking into account our spiritual state – whether we are able to bear meeting with God; whether we are ready even for a moment to be like Him?!).