But as then, during the ministry of the Lord before the Cross, only those who believed in Jesus recognized Him, united with Him in one Spirit, accepted the Holy Spirit, accepted His Power (for example, only one hemorrhaging woman touched (“the touch of faith”) the Lord, although many pressed upon the Lord—see Luke 8:44-46), so also now (when the Lord is already everywhere and all are in Him), and forever!
The Lord is with us! Do you want to believe in Jesus Christ, become His disciple, a Christian? Start doing His will, His commandments: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (see John 14:21). Jesus said to those who were offended and did not believe in Him: “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority” (see John 7:16-17). (The Word of God is known only by life! The Word of God is life). Do not seek signs, miracles (by the way, there are thousands in your life—just sincerely, humbly look!), but make an effort to sincerely open your eyes, ears, and in humility know the truth, and in it, by faith (which will be the fruit of a sincere search for Truth), Jesus Christ, the Love of God the Father… Now the Lord is everywhere, and primarily in your neighbor (in love for your neighbor, the Lord Jesus Christ is known: “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me”—see Matt. 25:31-46).
The Lord is with us! Therefore, the Lord did not command us a new doctrine or a new code of laws, commandments (see Eph. 2:15), but Himself: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22), “Take, eat Me: My Body (= Me) and My Blood (= Me) (Matt. 26:26-28, Mark 14:22-24, Luke 22:19-20, John 6:55-57), “Abide in Me!” (John 15:4). Christianity is life not by commandments, statutes, canons, but in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in Love—against such there is no law (Gal. 5:23).
Some say: we want to see Jesus, show Him to us!—Go and keep God’s commandments and you will see!!!—No, no, show us here and now!??—It doesn’t work that way: not because the Lord (Hypostatic Humility) is too proud to come, but because He is seen only by the humble, obedient, ready to serve as the least, the last! Moreover, we say: the Lord is before you (as He once stood before Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin, hung on the Cross before the whole world), but you do not see Him! Listen to this pride: “let Him appear to me and I will believe in Him”! Complete misunderstanding and insensitivity! Humble yourself to know the Humble One, become a follower of the Truth to know the Obedient One, the Truth! The Lord loves you, but through your pride, you suffer! Humble yourself and you will know the Lord. Jesus Christ is known only by faith (trust in the Word of God—keeping God’s commandments, which gain the God-receptive humility, full of faith-trust in the Lord Jesus Christ)!
So, I say again, if you believe that God is Love, that the Kingdom of God has already come, that the Lord Jesus Christ stands at your heart, waiting for your trust to fill you with the fullness of the Holy Spirit, Divine Bliss…—what more interesting things (“what’s new with you?”) can we talk about?! What excursions, pilgrimages, holy lands and sanctuaries, etc., can we still talk about?! But if you do not yet believe in this Gospel, which the Church of Christ preaches, or maybe hear for the first time what we have briefly mentioned here, you can enter and take a tour of our apothecary. But first, thoroughly clean your shoes from the dirt of prejudice, cunning, and once again carefully, responsibly read the warnings on the sign at the entrance (“Foolish reading…”), or better yet, learn this warning by heart, or at least remember it while being in our apothecary (reading our books)!
So, you are in the apothecary, where there are different thought-medicines for various diseases-delusions-misunderstandings-heresies-ignorance. For each disease, there are its medicines, so be careful, do not be tempted. In our apothecary, there are many polemical words-medicines, presented in frightening, non-oily verbal forms. Therefore, to prevent visitors from being scared, we warn about this in every book; and now we find it appropriate to remind, explain, clarify the appropriateness of using frightening verbal forms (satanists, antichrists, etc.). A satanist is one who opposes God’s creation, purpose, plan of God’s economy. For example: the apostle Peter (“Get behind Me, Satan!”—see Matt. 16:23), the Jews (“your father the devil”—see John 8:44), those who call themselves God’s praise (Jews, the messianic people, “Christians”), God’s people (“but they are a synagogue of Satan, a satanic assembly”—see Rev. 2:9; 3:9), various antichrists, heretics (see 1 John 2:18), and others. These are all our brothers and sisters who are in a state of opposition to God, the Spirit of Truth. For the sake of accurate diagnosis of the state of affairs, we use precisely such words because we do not find better ones (which would be rooted in tradition, and literally, as it seems to me, would unequivocally correspond to the spiritual reality we point to). If you have other suggestions regarding this, we will be very grateful for your help-suggestion (write to us by email). How else to call, for example, the OCU, to make the name reflect the essence of this organization, manifested in its fruits?! Some are offended, some shake their heads in surprise, saying, what nonsense are you talking about, we received a tomos, worldwide recognition; some, having listened to the description of the fruits of activity (and inactivity) of this organization, still say that it is not a synagogue… You ask: what is it then? To say “Church of Christ,” after the arguments given above (especially in part III), their tongue does not turn, and they do not want to acknowledge their catastrophic state, so in response: silence! But we did not prepare and are preparing thought-medicines for the cunning (cunning ones—with or without a mask—are categorically forbidden entry to our apothecary!). Not insults, condemnation, or contempt sound in these sharp verbal forms (however: everyone hears what they want to hear, fills the words with their meaning, the meaning of their heart!), but a warning, a plea to repent, to get off the path of delusion, heresies, synagogue order… and get on the path of Truth, Orthodox faith-trust, proclamation-preparation for baptism by the Holy Spirit. You ask: “Can’t you do without these sharp, frightening words?” You can do everything! But we believe it is more appropriate to report a fire, a disaster precisely with such words. If these words “cut your ear,” you can replace them with synonyms that will be more to your liking… The essence is not in words, forms (formalities), but in spirit, content, essence!