|
|
|
| CHAPTER III. |
3
|
|
CHRISTIANITY MISUNDERSTOOD BY BELIEVERS. |
ϴ 鿡 صǴ |
|
Meaning of Christian Doctrine, Understood by a Minority, has Become
Completely Incomprehensible for the Majority of Men-Reason of this to be
Found in Misinterpretation of Christianity and Mistaken Conviction of
Believers and Unbelievers Alike that they Understand it- The Meaning of
Christianity Obscured for Believers by the Church- The First Appearance of
Christ's Teaching-Its Essence and Difference from Heathen
Religions-Christianity not Fully Comprehended at the Beginning, Became
More and More Clear to those who Accepted it from its Correspondence with
Truth-Simultaneously with this Arose the Claim to Possession of the
Authentic Meaning of the Doctrine Based on the Miraculous Nature of its
Transmission-Assembly of Disciples as Described in the Acts-The
Authoritative Claim to the Sole Possession of the True Meaning of
Christ's Teaching Supported by Miraculous Evidence has Led by Logical
Development to the Creeds of the Churches-A Church Could Not be Founded
by Christ-Definitions of a Church According to the Catechisms- The
Churches have Always been Several in Number and Hostile to One
Another-What is Heresy-The Work of G. Arnold on Heresies- Heresies the
Manifestations of Progress in the Churches-Churches Cause Dissension among
Men, and are Always Hostile to Christianity -Account of the Work Done by
the Russian Church-Matt. xxiii. 23- The Sermon on the Mount or the
Creed-The Orthodox Church Conceals from the People the True Meaning of
Christianity-The Same Thing is Done by the Other Churches-All the External
Conditions of Modern Life are such as to Destroy the Doctrine of the
Church, and therefore the Churches use Every Effort to Support their
Doctrines. |
ǹ,
Ҽ ټ
鿡 Ǵ-̰Ϳ
̸ ϴڿ
ʴ ߸ Ȯſ ã ִ-ȸ
ؼ ϴ ڵ鿡 ǹ̰ ȣ-
ħ - ̱ -
ó ص ʾ,
Ͽ װ Ƶ 鿡
и-̰Ͱ ÿ,
Ŀ ־
ʷ ǹ̸ Կ
Ͼ-絵 ϵ ڵ
- ſ Ͽ ħϿ,
ħ ǹ ִ
- ȸ Ͽ -
信 ȸ -ȸ
̾ ο ̾-̴ ΰ-̴ܵ鿡
G.
Ƴ ǰ-̴ܵ,
ȸ鿡 ־
ǥ-ȸ ̿ п Ű,
̴-þ ȸ ϴ
-º 23
23- ƴϸ ɾ
Ű-ȸ 鿡Լ ǹ̸
- ٸ ȸ - Ȱ
ǵ ȸ ıϰ
Ǿִ,
Ƿ ȸ
ϱ Ѵ. |
|
|
|
|
Thus the information I received, after my book came out, went to show
that the Christian doctrine, in its direct and simple sense, was
understood, and had always been understood, by a minority of men, while
the critics, ecclesiastical and freethinking alike, denied the
possibility of taking Christ's teaching in its direct sense. All this
convinced me that while on one hand the true understanding of this
doctrine had never been lost to a minority, but had been established more
and more clearly, on the other hand the meaning of it had been more and
more obscured for the majority. So that at last such a depth of obscurity
has been reached that men do not take in their direct sense even the
simplest precepts, expressed in the simplest words, in the Gospel. |
ռ ٿ ,
ڿ,
,
Ҽ 鿡 ؼ,
̸ ܼ ǹ̷,
Ǿ,
صǾ Դ,
ݸ鿡 ,
ȸ
,
ǹ̿ ħ
Ƶ̴ ɼ Ͽ ־.
͵,
Ҽ ǵ ,
ϰ
ȮǾ,
ٸ ǹ̴
ټ ָ .
ħ
ָ ̰
ܼ ǥ ܼ ħ
ǹ̷ ʴ
Ͽ. |
|
Christ's teaching is not generally understood in its true, simple,
and direct sense even in these days, when the light of the Gospel has
penetrated even to the darkest recesses of human consciousness; when, in
the words of Christ, that which was spoken in the ear is proclaimed from
the housetops; and when the Gospel is influencing every side of human
life-domestic, economic, civic, legislative, and international. This lack
of true understanding of Christ's words at such a time would be
inexplicable, if there were not causes to account for it. |
ΰ ǽ ο
,
,
Ϳ
ϴ Ǵ
ħ Ϲ ü ϸ,
ܼϰ,
ǹ̷ ص ʴ´;
ΰ Ȱ -,
,
ù,
Թ,
- ġ ִ
̴.
־,
װ
ظϴ ٸ,
̷ ̴. |
|
One of these causes is the fact that believers and unbelievers alike
are firmly persuaded that they have understood Christ's teaching a long
time, and that they understand it so fully, indubitably, and conclusively
that it can have no other significance than the one they attribute to it.
And the reason of this conviction is that the false interpretation and
consequent misapprehension of the Gospel is an error of such long
standing. Even the strongest current of water cannot add a drop to a cup
which is already full. |
̷ ϳ ϴ ڵ̳ ʴ
ڵ̳ Ȱ ħ
,
װ ,
Ȥ ,
ݰ Ƿ װͿ οϴ
ǹ̿ ٸ ǹ̸ ٰ Ȯϰ
Ǿ ִ ̴.
̷ Ȯ
ؼ ذ
Ⱓ ̴.
ƹ
帧̶ ̹ ſ ﵵ
. |
|
The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted
man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing
cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded
that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him. |
̶ 鿡
̹ ʾҴٸ,
ƹ
͵̶ ִ;
Ѹ ,
ǽɾ,
ڽ տ
̹ ˰ ִٰ Ȯϰ ִٸ
ܼ ͵ Դ ص . |
|
The Christian doctrine is presented to the men of our world today as a
doctrine which everyone has known so long and accepted so unhesitatingly
in all its minutest details that it cannot be understood in any other way
than it is understood now. |
,
ʹ
˾ƿ ̼ κе ʹ
Ƶ鿩,
װ صǰ ִ
ٸ ε ص μ,
ó
츮 鿡 õǾ ִ. |
|
Christianity is understood now by all who profess the doctrines of the
Church as a supernatural miraculous revelation of everything which is
repeated in the Creed. By unbelievers it is regarded as an illustration of
man's craving for a belief in the supernatural, which mankind has now
outgrown, as an historical phenomenon which has received full expression
in Catholicism, Greek Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, and has no longer any
living significance for us. The significance of the Gospel is hidden
from believers by the Church, from unbelievers by Science. |
ȸ ϴ
鿡 ؼ,
Ǯϴ
ڿ ÷μ صǰ ִ.
ʴ
鿡 ־ װ,
ڿ Ϳ
÷μ,
η
ڿ ʿ䰡 ,
ī縯,
ȸ,
űȸ ǥ
ִ ,
츮鿡
־ ̻ ִ ǹ̸ Ѵ.
ǹ̴ ϴ 鿡Դ ȸ Ͽ,
ʴ
鿡Դ п Ͽ ִ. |
|
I will speak first of the former. Eighteen hundred years ago there
appeared in the midst of the heathen Roman world a strange new doctrine,
unlike any of the old religions, and attributed to a man, Christ. |
ڿ ̾߱ ϰڴ. 1800 ̱
θ ̻ ο
Ÿ,
Ͱ ʾ,
̴ ϴ κ εǾ. |
|
This new doctrine was in both form and content absolutely new to the
Jewish world in which it originated, and still more to the Roman world in
which it was preached and diffused. |
ο ¿ 뿡 װ
迡 ο ̾,
װ ǰ ĵ θ 迡 ξ
ߴ. |
|
In the midst of the elaborate religious observances of Judaism, in
which, in the words of Isaiah, law was laid upon law, and in the midst of
the Roman legal system worked out to the highest point of perfection, a
new doctrine appeared, which denied not only every deity, and all fear
and worship of them, but even all human institutions and all necessity for
them. In place of all the rules of the old religions, this doctrine sets
up only a type of inward perfection, truth, and love in the person of
Christ, and-as a result of this inward perfection being attained by men-
also the outward perfection foretold by the Prophets-the kingdom of God,
when all men will cease to learn to make war, when all shall be taught of
God and united in love, and the lion will lie down with the lamb. Instead
of the threats of punishment which all the old laws of religions and
governments alike laid down for non-fulfillment of their rules, instead of
promises of rewards for fulfillment of them, this doctrine called men to
it only because it was the truth. John vii. 17: "If any man will do His
will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God. John viii.
46: "If I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? But ye seek to kill
me, a man that hath told you the truth. Ye shall know the truth, and the
truth shall make you free. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. Keep my sayings, and ye shall know of
my sayings whether they be true." No proofs of this doctrine were
offered except its truth, the correspondence of the doctrine with the
truth. The whole teaching consisted in the recognition of truth and
following it, in a greater and greater attainment of truth, and a closer
and closer following of it in the acts of life. There are no acts in this
doctrine which could justify a man and make him saved. There is only the
image of truth to guide him, for inward perfection in the person of
Christ, and for outward perfection in the establishment of the kingdom
of God. The fulfillment of this teaching consists only in walking in the
chosen way, in getting nearer to inward perfection in the imitation of
Christ, and outward perfection in the establishment of the kingdom of God.
The greater or less blessedness of a man depends, according to this
doctrine, not on the degree of perfection to which he has attained, but on
the greater or less swiftness with which he is pursuing it. |
̻ 鿡 ,
ִ,
뱳 ǽ ,
Ϻ
θ ü Ѱ,
ο
Ÿ,
ŵ,
װ͵鿡 η Ӹ ƴ϶,
ΰ ΰ
ʿ ͵ Ͽ.
ɵ
ſ,
ϼ,
,
ȭ ,
-
ϴ ϼ μ- ڵ
ϼ-ϳ ձ,
,
Ű ϰ,
ϳԿ ϰ,
ڰ
Բ Ǵ - .
ε
Ȱ ɵ
Ͽ س ó ſ,
װ͵
Կ Ե ſ,
װ װ
ûߴ.
Ѻ 7 17
: ϳ
Ϸ ϸ ϳԲμ Դ
˸.
Ѻ 8 46
:
ϸ Ͽ ƴϴ.
ϳԲ
̷ ϴµ.
ϸ.ϳ ̽ô ϴ ڰ ŷɰ
϶.
Ű,
˸.
̱ ,
ġ ƹ ŵ .
ü
ħ νİ װ ,
ū ,
鼭 װ
־.
ȭϰ
Ͽٰ ϴ .
εϴ ̸,
װ
ȭμ ϼ,
ϳ ձ
ִ ϼ ̾.
ħ
õ õ ɾ ִ,
װ
ϼ ϳ ձ
ϼ ̴.
ų ູ,
ϸ,
װ ϼ ִ ƴ϶,
װ
װ ߱ϴ ũų ִ. |
|
The progress toward perfection of the publican Zaccheus, of the woman
that was a sinner, of the robber on' the cross, is a greater state of
blessedness, according to this doctrine, than the stationary righteousness
of the Pharisee. The lost sheep is dearer than ninety-nine that were not
lost. The prodigal son, the piece of money that was lost and found again,
are dearer, more precious to God than those which have not been lost. |
谳,
̴ ,
ڰ ϼ
ư,
ϸ,
ٸε
Ǿ ִ Ƿο ū
ູ̾.
Ҿ Ҿ
ȩ ϴ.
Ƶ,
Ҿ
ȴٰ ٽ ã Ǭ ϳ տ
Ҿ ʾҴ ͵麸 ϸ ϴ. |
|
Every condition, according to this doctrine, is only a particular step
in the attainment of inward and outward perfection, and therefore has no
significance of itself. Blessedness consists in progress toward
perfection; to stand still in any condition whatever means the cessation
of this blessedness. |
´,
ϸ,
ϼ Ư ̴ܰ,
Ƿ
üθ ƹ ǹ̰ .
ູ ϼ
Ͽ ư ִ;
¿ ϴ
̷ ູ ߴ ǹѴ. |
|
"Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." "No man
having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of
God." "Rejoice not that the spirits are subject to you, but seek
rather that your names be written in heaven." "Be ye perfect, even as
your Father in heaven is perfect." "Seek ye first the kingdom of
heaven and its righteousness." |
ϴ ϶.
鼭 ڸ ƴ
ϳ ձ ġ ƴϴ.
ӵǾ ִ ȥ鿡 ,
̸
õ ϵǰ ϶. ϴÿ ƹ
϶. õ Ǹ
ã. |
|
The fulfillment of this precept is only to be found in uninterrupted
progress toward the attainment of ever higher truth, toward establishing
more and more firmly an ever greater love within oneself, and establishing
more and more widely the kingdom of God outside oneself. |
̷ ħ ϼ
ߴ ,
ڽ ȿ ߰ϰ
ū Ȯϰ,
ڽ ٱ а
ϳ ձ ã ִ. |
|
It is obvious that, appearing as it did in the midst of the Jewish and
heathen world, such teaching could not be accepted by the majority of men,
who were living a life absolutely different from what was required by it.
It is obvious, too, that even for those by whom it was accepted, it was so
absolutely opposed to all their old views that it could not be
comprehensible in its full significance. |
ΰ ̱ Ƿ,
ħ κ 鿡 鿩
װͿ 䱸Ǵ Ͱ
ٸ ־ Ȯϴ.
,
װ 鿩 鿡Ե,
װ
ð ݴ뿴Ƿ װ ǹ̰
ص . |
|
It has been only by a succession of misunderstandings, errors, partial
explanations, and the corrections and additions of generations that the
meaning of the Christian doctrine has grown continually more and more
clear to men. The Christian view of life has exerted an influence on the
Jewish and heathen, and the heathen and Jewish view of life has, too,
exerted an influence on the Christian. And Christianity, as the living
force, has gained more and more upon the extinct Judaism and heathenism,
and has grown continually clearer and clearer, as it freed itself from the
admixture of falsehood which had overlaid it. Men went further and further
in the attainment of the meaning of Christianity, and realized it more and
more in life. |
ǹ̰ 鿡
и ӵǴ ص,
,
,
븦 ļ ϰ
÷ ̾.
ð
ε ̱鿡 ־,
̱
ð ε鿡
־.
,
ư ν,
뱳 ̱ ,
ڶ и,
ÿ
ִ ڼӿ
ο .
ǹ̸
ư,
װ
Ҵ. |
|
The longer mankind lived, the clearer and clearer became the meaning of
Christianity, as must always be the case with every theory of life. |
η ,
ǹ̴
и,
װ ̷
Ҵ. |
|
Succeeding generations corrected the errors of their predecessors, and
grew ever nearer and nearer to a comprehension of the true meaning. It
was thus from the very earliest times of Christianity. And so, too, from
the earliest times of Christianity there were men who began to assert on
their own authority that the meaning they attribute to the doctrine is
the only true one, and as proof bring forward supernatural occurrences in
support of the correctness of their interpretation. |
ߴ,
ǹ .
װ
âκ Ͽ.
,
,
,
âκ μ
οϴ ǹ̰
̶ ϸ,
ŷ,
ؼ
Ȯ ħϱ ؼ ڿ ǵ
ϱ ϴ ־. |
|
This was the principal cause at first of the misunderstanding of the
doctrine, and afterward of the complete distortion of it. |
̰ ó Կ ߿
̾,
ڿ ְ
̾. |
|
It was supposed that Christ's teaching was transmitted to men not
like every other truth, but in a special miraculous way. Thus the truth
of the teaching was not proved by its correspondence with the needs of the
mind and the whole nature of man, but by the miraculous manner of its
transmission, which was advanced as an irrefutable proof of the truth of
the interpretation put on it. This hypothesis originated from
misunderstanding of the teaching, and its result was to make it impossible
to understand it rightly. |
ħ ٸ ,
Ư 鿡 ٰ
Ǿ.
ħ ħ
ʿ ü ġ ƴ϶,
Ͽ Ǿ,
װ
ִ ؼ Ǽ ݹ
ŷμ Ǿ.
ħ ؿ
ԵǾ ٸ ݴ
Ұϰ ϴ ̾. |
|
And this happened first in the earliest times, when the doctrine was
still not so fully understood and often interpreted wrongly, as we see
by the Gospels and the Acts. The less the doctrine was understood, the
more obscure it appeared and the more necessary were external proofs of
its truth. The proposition that we ought not to do unto others as we would
not they should do unto us, did not need to be proved by miracles and
needed no exercise of faith, because this proposition is in itself
convincing and in harmony with man's mind and nature; but the
proposition that Christ was God had to be proved by miracles completely
beyond our comprehension. |
̰ â Ͼ,
ʾ,
츮 絵 ,
߸
ؼ Ǿ.
,
װ
ָϰ ,
ؼ
ŵ ʿϿ.
Ÿε 츮
ٶ ʴ 츮 Ÿε鿡 ؼ
ȵȴٴ ,
ŵ ʿ䰡
ž ʿ䰡 ,
ֳϸ
ü ȭ
DZ ̴;
ϳ̴ٶ
츮 ظ μ
Ǿ ߴ. |
|
The more the understanding of Christ's teaching was obscured, the
more the miraculous was introduced into it; and the more the miraculous
was introduced into it, the more the doctrine was strained from its
meaning and the more obscure it became; and the more it was strained from
its meaning and the more obscure it became, the more strongly its
infallibility had to be asserted, and the less comprehensible the
doctrine became. |
ħ ȣ
,
ȿ Ǿ;
ȿ Ǹ ɼ,
ǹ̷κ ڿ
ȣ;
ǹ̷κ ڿ
װ ȣ ,
ϰ
Ἲ Ǿ ,
Ǿȴ. |
|
One can see by the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles how from the
earliest times the non-comprehension of the doctrine called forth the need
for proofs through the miraculous and incomprehensible. |
츮 ,
絵,
ѵκ,
ʱ
Ұ ŵ鿡 ʿ並 ҷ
״ ִ. |
|
The first example in the book of Acts is the assembly which gathered
together in Jerusalem to decide the question which had arisen, whether
to baptize or not the uncircumcised and those who had eaten of food
sacrificed to idols. |
絵 ù° ҷʸ
ؾ
ƴ Ͽ Ͼ ذϰ 췽
Բ ȸ̴. |
|
The very fact of this question being raised showed that those who
discussed it did not understand the teaching of Christ, who rejected all
outward observances-ablutions, purifications, fasts, and Sabbaths. It was
plainly said, "Not that which goeth into a man's mouth, but that which
cometh out of a man's mouth, defileth him," and therefore the question
of baptizing the uncircumcised could only have arisen among men who,
though they loved their Master and dimly felt the grandeur of his
teaching, still did not understand the teaching itself very clearly. And
this was the fact. |
̷ Ǿٴ ٷ װ
ǽ-,
û,
ܽ Ƚ - ħ
Ͽ ־.
װ иϰ
Ǿ, ƴ϶
Կ ϴ϶,
Ƿ ҷ ϴ
,
ִ Ͽ
ħ ϰ ,
ħ ü ϴ ̿
ִ.
̰ ̴. |
|
Just in proportion to the failure of the members of the assembly to
understand the doctrine was their need of external confirmation of their
incomplete interpretation of it. And then to settle this question, the
very asking of which proved their misunderstanding of the doctrine, there
was uttered in this assembly, as is described in the Acts, that strange
phrase, which was for the first time found necessary to give external
confirmation to certain assertions, and which has been productive of so
much evil. |
ݴµ Կ
Ȯ Ͽ ҿ
Ȯ ʿ䰡 ־.
,
,
ظ
ϴ ٷ óϱ Ͽ,
ȸ
,
絵 ó,
̻
Ǿ,
װ Ư 鿡
Ȯ ֱ ʿϴٰ ó ˷,
װ ϴ . |
|
That is, it was asserted that the correctness of what they had decided
was guaranteed by the miraculous participation of the Holy Ghost, that
is, of God, in their decision. But the assertion that the Holy Ghost, that
is, God, spoke through the Apostles, in its turn wanted proof. And thus it
was necessary, to confirm this, that the Holy Ghost should descend at
Pentecost in tongues of fire upon those who made this assertion. (In the
account of it, the descent of the Holy Ghost precedes the assembly, but
the book of Acts was written much later than both events.) But the descent
of the Holy Ghost too had to be proved for those who had not seen the
tongues of fire (though it is not easy to understand why a tongue of fire
burning above a man's head should prove that what that man is going to
say will be infallibly the truth). And so arose the necessity for still
more miracles and changes, raisings of the dead to life, and strikings of
the living dead, and all those marvels which have been a stumbling-block
to men, of which the Acts is full, and which, far from ever convincing one
of the truth of the Christian doctrine, can only repel men from it. The
result of such a means of confirming the truth was that the more these
confirmations of truth by tales of miracles were heaped up one after
another, the more the doctrine was distorted from its original meaning,
and the more incomprehensible it became. |
ٽ ϸ,
Ȯ
,
ϳ,
μ
Ǿٰ Ǿ.
,
,
ϳ
絵 Ͽ Ͽٴ ,
ü
Ÿ ʿ Ͽ.
,
̰ ħϱ
Ͽ,
̷ 鿡
μ ؾ ʿϿ. (װ
,
ȸ ռ,
絵 ΰ Ǻ ξڿ ϵǾ.)
ؼ Ǿ ߴ ( Ӹ Ÿ
ִ ,
ϰ ϴ
Ʋ ϴ ϱ ).
ؼ ȭ鿡
ʿ䰡 ܳ,
,
ڸ
Ű,
ڰ ڱ װϸ,
鿡
ž ̴ֹ װ͵̴,
װ͵ Ͽ 絵 ϵǾ ,
װ͵ 鿡 ݰ
ϱ Ŀ,
κ Ѿƹ ִ
̴.
̷
̾߱鿡 Ÿ ϳѾ
,
ǹ̿
ְǾ,
װ Ǿ. |
|
Thus it was from the earliest times, and so it went on, constantly
increasing, till it reached in our day the logical climax of the dogmas of
transubstantiation and the infallibility of the Pope, or of the bishops,
or of Scripture, and of requiring a blind faith rendered incomprehensible
and utterly meaningless, not in God, but in Christ, not in a doctrine, but
in a person, as in Catholicism, or in persons, as in Greek Orthodoxy, or
in a book, as in Protestantism. The more widely Christianity was diffused,
and the greater the number of people unprepared for it who were brought
under its sway, the less it was understood, the more absolutely was its
infallibility insisted on, and the less possible it became to understand
the true meaning of the doctrine. In the times of Constantine the whole
interpretation of the doctrine had been already reduced to a resume-supported
by the temporal authority-of the disputes that had taken place in the
Council-to a creed which reckoned off -I believe in so and so, and so and
so, and so and so to the end-to one holy, Apostolic Church, which means
the infallibility of those persons who call themselves the Church. So that
it all amounts to a man no longer believing in God nor Christ, as they
are revealed to him, but believing in what the Church orders him to
believe in. |
â ǾԴ,
װ
ư,
Ӿ Ǿ,
ħ װ
츮 ô뿡 ȭ(ܨ) ,
Ȳ Ǵ
ֱ Ǵ ,
ʹ ǹ ž- ƴ
ϳԿ ,
ƴ ,
,
ī縯,
ȸ,
Ǵ å ,
,
űȸ- 䱸μ
ߴ.
ָ ĵǸ ɼ,
ä ǿ ڰ
,
װ صǾ,
Ǿ,
ǵ
ǹ̸ Ǿ.
ܽźƼ ô뿡
ü ؼ ̹ ȸ Ͼ
-Ӽ Ƿ¿ -,
-
ϴ´-,
ϳ 絵 ȸ-װ
ڽŵ ȸ ´
ǹѴ- ҵǾ ȴ.
ᱹ
̻ 鿡 ŸŴ ϳ̳
ȸ 鿡
ϴ ϴ Ǿ. |
|
But the Church is holy; the Church was founded by Christ. God could not
leave men to interpret his teaching at random-therefore he founded the
Church. All those statements are so utterly untrue and unfounded that one
is ashamed to refute them. Nowhere nor in anything, except in the
assertion of the Church, can we find that God or Christ founded anything
like what Churchmen understand by the Church. In the Gospels there is a
warning against the Church, as it is an external authority, a warning most
clear and obvious in the passage where it is said that Christ's
followers should "call no man master." But nowhere is anything said of
the foundation of what Churchmen call the Church. |
ȸ ;
ȸ ؼ
ʵǾ.
ϳ ħ
Ǵ ؼϵ -Ƿ װ
ȸ .
ʹ
̸ ٰŰ 츮 װ͵ ݹϱⰡ
β ̴.
Ϳ,
ȸ
忡 ,
츮 ϳ̳
ڵ ȸ ϴ
Ͻ ã .
ȸ
,
ȸ Ƿ̱ ,
ƹ ̶
ҷ ȵȴ.
ϰ и ִ.
ڵ ȸ θ ʿ Ͽ Ǿ
. |
|
The word church is used twice in the Gospels-once in the sense of an
assembly of men to decide a dispute, the other time in connection with the
obscure utterance about a stone-Peter, and the gates of hell. From these
two passages in which the word church is used, in the signification
merely of an assembly, has been deduced all that we now understand by the
Church. |
ȸ ܾ ι Ǿ-ѹ
ϱ ̶ ǹ̷,
ٸ ѹ -,
-
ȣ ް ؼ̴.
ȸ ܾ
ΰ κ,
ܼ ̶ 濡,
츮 ȸ ϰ ִ ͵
Ǿ. |
|
But Christ could not have founded the Church, that is, what we now
understand by that word. For nothing like the idea of the Church as we
know it now, with its sacraments, miracles, and above all its claim to
infallibility, is to be found either in Christ's words or in the ideas
of the men of that time. |
ȸ,
ٽ ϸ,
츮
ܾμ ϰ ִ .
ֳϸ 츮 ˰ ִ ȸ -ʽ,
,
ٵ ȸ -
͵ ̳ ô
ӿ ã ̴. |
|
The fact that men called what was formed afterward by the same word as
Christ used for something totally different, does not give them the right
to assert that Christ founded the one, true Church. |
ٸ Ͱ
Ȱ ܾμ ڿ
ҷٴ ,
ϳ ȸ
Ͽٴ Ǹ 鿡
ʴ´. |
|
Besides, if Christ had really founded such an institution as the Church
for the foundation of all his teaching and the whole faith, he would
certainly have described this institution clearly and definitely, and
would have given the only true Church, besides tales of miracles, which
are used to support every kind of superstition, some tokens so unmistakable
that no doubt of its genuineness could ever have arisen. But nothing of
the sort was done by him. And there have been and still are different
institutions, each calling itself the true Church. |
Դٰ,
ħ
ü ž 븦 ȸ
Ͽٸ,
״ и и
Ȯϰ Ͽ ̴,
ȸ,
̽ µ Ǵ
̾߱ Ӹ ƴ϶,
ణ ǥ ־ ο ǽ
Ͼ Ͽ ̴.
ʾҴ.
ڰ
ڽŵ ȸ θ
־ ִ. |
|
The Catholic catechism says: "L'Eglise est la society des fideles
etablie par notre Seigneur Jesus Christ, repandue sur toute la terre et
soumise a l'authorite des pasteurs legitimes, principalement notre Saint
Pere le Pape," understanding by the words "pasteurs legitimes" an
association of men having the Pope at its head, and consisting of certain
individuals bound together by a certain organization. |
ī縯 Ѵ: LEglise
est la society des fideles etablie par notre Seigneur Jesus Christ,
repandue sur toute la terre et soumise a l'authorite des pasteurs
legitimes, principalement notre Saint Pere le Pape." "pasteurs
legitimes ڸ,
Ȳ
ϴ ̸,
ⱸ
ؼ Բ ӵǴ Ư ε Ǿ ִ. |
|
The Greek Orthodox catechism says: "The Church is a society founded
upon earth by Jesus Christ, which is united into one whole, by one divine
doctrine and by sacraments, under the rule and guidance of a priesthood
appointed by God," meaning by the "priesthood appointed by God" the
Greek Orthodox priesthood, consisting of certain individuals who happen
to be in such or such positions. |
ȸ Ѵ:
ȸ
ؼ ȸ̴,
̴
ϳԿ ؼ Ӹ ɰ Ʒ,
ϳ ż ؼ ʵ鿡 ؼ,
ϳ ü յȴ. ϳԿ ؼ Ӹ
ȸ ǹϸ,
ִ Ư ε Ǿ
ִ. |
|
The Lutheran catechism says: "The Church is holy Christianity, or the
collection of all believers under Christ, their head, to whom the Holy
Ghost through the Gospels and sacraments promises, communicates, and
administers heavenly salvation," meaning that the Catholic Church is
lost in error, and that the true means of salvation is in Lutheranism. |
ȸ Ѵ: ȸ
Ǵ Ӹ̽ Ʒ ִ
ڵ ̸,
鿡 ɲ
ʵ Ͽ õ Ͻø,
Ͻð ְϽŴ.
̴ ī縯 ȸ
,
ȸ
ִٴ ̴. |
|
For Catholics the Church of God coincides with the Roman priesthood and
the Pope. For the Greek Orthodox believer the Church of God coincides with
The Establishment and priesthood of Russia. |
ī縯 ڵ鿡 ϳ ȸ θ ܰ
Ȳ ġѴ.
ȸ ڿԴ
ϳ ȸ þ ܰ ġ Ѵ. |
|
For Lutherans the Church of God coincides with a body of men who
recognize the authority of the Bible and Luther's catechism. |
ͱ ڵ鿡 ϳ ȸ
Ǵ ϴ Ӱ
ġѴ. |
|
Ordinarily, when speaking of the rise of Christianity, men belonging to
one of the existing churches use the word church in the singular, as
though there were and had been only one church. But this is absolutely
incorrect. The Church, as an institution which asserted that it possessed
infallible truth, did not make its appearance singly; there were at least
two churches directly this claim was made. |
,
Ͼ ̾߱ ,
ȸ
ϳ ϴ ,
ġ ϳ ȸ
־ ó,
ȸ ܾ ܼ
Ѵ.
̰ Ȯ ʴ.
Ѵٰ ϴ ⱸμ
ȸ ϳ ʾҴ;
ΰ ȸ ־. |
|
While believers were agreed among themselves and the body was one, it
had no need to declare itself as a church. It was only when believers were
split up into opposing parties, renouncing one another, that it seemed
necessary to each party to confirm their own truth by ascribing to
themselves infallibility. The conception of one church only arose when
there were two sides divided and disputing, who each called the other side
heresy, and recognized their own side only as the infallible church. |
ڵ ε ̿ ȭյǸ
ϳ,
θ ȸ ʿ䰡 .
ڵ ݴ Ĺ ,
θ
μ,
Ĺ ڽŵ ٰ
ν ڽ ʿ䰡 ־
δ.
ϳ ȸ
ܳ,
ڴ
̴̶ θ,
ڽ
ȸ Ͽ. |
|
If we knew that there was a church which decided in the year 51 to
receive the uncircumcised, it is only so because there was another
church-of the Judaists-who decided to keep the uncircumcised out. |
츮 51 ҷʹ ڵ
̴ ȸ ־ٴ ˾Ҵٸ,
װ
ҷʹ ڵ ʱ ٸ ȸ-뱳ε-
־ ̴. |
|
If there is a Catholic Church now which asserts its own infallibility,
that is only because there are churches- Greco-Russian, Old Orthodox, and
Lutheran-each asserting its own infallibility and denying that of all
other churches. So that the one Church is only a fantastic imagination
which has not the least trace of reality about it. |
ڽŵ ٰ ϴ ī縯
ȸ ִٸ,
װ ȸ-þ ȸ,
ȸ,
ȸ- ,
ڰ
ڽ ٰ ϸ ٸ ȸ
ϱ ̴.
ϳ ȸ
װͿ ϸ Ǽ ʴ
ȯ ̴. |
|
As a real historical fact there has existed, and still exist, several
bodies of men, each asserting that it is the one Church, founded by
Christ, and that all the others who call themselves churches are only
sects and heresies. |
Ƿμ,
ü
Ͽ,
ϰ ,
ڰ
ȸ̸,
ڽŵ
ȸ̶ θ ٸ ͵
ĵ̸ ̴̶ܵ ϰ ִ. |
|
The catechisms of the churches of the most worldwide influence-the
Catholic, the Old Orthodox, and the Lutheran-openly assert this. |
ȸ-ī縯,
ȸ,
ͱȸ- ̰
Ѵ. |
|
In the Catholic catechism it is said: "Quels sont ceux qui sont hors
de l'eglise? Les infideles, les heretiques, les schismatiques." The
so-called Greek Orthodox are regarded as schismatics, the Lutherans as
heretics; so that according to the Catholic catechism the only people in
the Church are Catholics. |
ī縯 信 ó Ǿִ: ȸ
ٱ ִ ڵ ΰ?
ҽڵ,
̴ڵ
ĺи ̴.
ȸ
ĺиڷ ,
ͱȸ ̴̸,
ȸ
ȿ ִ ī縯̴. |
|
In the so-called Orthodox catechism it is said: By the one Christian
Church is understood the Orthodox, which remains fully in accord with the
Universal Church. As for the Roman Church and other sects (the Lutherans
and the rest they do not even dignify by the name of church), they cannot
be included in the one true Church, since they have themselves separated
from it. |
ȸ 信 ̷ ִ:
ȸ ϳ ȸ ؼ صǸ,
̰ ȸ ġѴ.
θ ȸ
ٸ ĵ鿡 ؼ (ͱȸ
ȸ ̸ θ ʴ´),
ϳ
ȸ Ե ʴ´,
ֳϸ ڽ
κ иǾ ̴. |
|
According to this definition the Catholics and Lutherans are outside
the Church, and there are only Orthodox in the Church. |
ǿ ī縯 ͱ ȸ ٱ
ִ,
ȸ ȿ 뱳ȸ ִ. |
|
The Lutheran catechism says: "Die wahre Kirche wird darein erkannt,
dass in ihr das Wort Gottes lauter und rein ohne Menschenzusatze gelehrt
und die Sacramente treu nach Christi Einsetzung gewahret werden." |
ͱ Ѵ: ȸ ϳ
иϰ ǰ ͵
ʽ ħ ν
˷ ̴. |
|
According to this definition all those who have added anything to the
teaching of Christ and the apostles, as the Catholic and Greek churches
have done, are outside the Church. And in the Church there are only
Protestants. |
ǿ ϸ 絵 ħ
̵ ȸ,
ī縯ȸ ȸ ó,
ȸ ۿ
ִ.
ȸ ȿ ű ̴. |
|
The Catholics assert that the Holy Ghost has been transmitted without
a break in their priesthood. The Orthodox assert that the same Holy Ghost
has been transmitted without a break in their priesthood. The Arians
asserted that the Holy Ghost was transmitted in their priesthood (they
asserted this with just as much right as the churches in authority now).
The Protestants of every kind- Lutherans, Reformed Church, Presbyterians,
Methodists, Swedenborgians, Mormons-assert that the Holy Ghost is only
present in their communities. If the Catholics assert that the Holy Ghost,
at the time of the division of the Church into Arian and Greek, left the
Church that fell away and remained in the one true Church, with precisely
the same right the Protestants of every denomination can assert that at
the time of the separation of their Church from the Catholic the Holy
Ghost left the Catholic and passed into the Church they professed. And
this is just what they do. |
ī縯 ȸ ܿ
ٰ Ѵ.
ȸ Ȱ
ܿ ٰ Ѵ.
Ƹȵ鵵 ܿ ٰ Ѵ(
ȸ Ȱ ŭ
μ ̰ Ѵ.)
ű-ͱȸ,
űȸ,
αȸ,
ȸ,
ȸ,
ȸ- ü
ԲѴٰ Ѵ.
ī縯 ȸ ϵ,
ƸȰ ȸ пǴ ,
ȸ ȸ ӹ,
̿ Ȱ ű ȸ
ī縯κ ȸ иǴ
ī縯 ϴ ȸ ٰ
ִ.
̰ ϴ ٷ
װ̴. |
|
Every church traces its creed through an uninterrupted transmission
from Christ and the Apostles. And truly every Christian creed that has
been derived from Christ must have come down to the present generation
through a certain transmission. But that does not prove that it alone of
all that has been transmitted, excluding all the rest, can be the sole
truth, admitting of no doubt. |
ȸ Ű()
絵κ η Ѵ.
κ Ļ Ű
Ư θ ؼ
Ʋ.
͵ ߿
װ ϳ,
ٸ ϰ,
ƹ
Ȥ ִٰ
. |
|
Every branch in a tree comes from the root in unbroken connection; but
the fact that each branch comes from the one root, does not prove at all
that each branch was the only one. It is precisely the same with the
Church. Every church presents exactly the same proofs of the succession,
and even the same miracles, in support of its authenticity, as every
other. So that there is but one strict and exact definition of what is a
church (not of something fantastic which we would wish it to be, but of
what it is and has been in reality)-a church is a body of men who claim
for themselves that they are in complete and sole possession of the truth.
And these bodies, having in course of time, aided by the support of the
temporal authorities, developed into powerful institutions, have been the
principal obstacles- to the diffusion of a true comprehension of the
teaching of Christ. |
ʰ
Ѹκ ´;
ϳ
Ѹκ Դٴ
̶ ϴ ƴϴ.
ȸ 쵵
Ȯ Ȱ.
ȸ ¿ ־,
ٸ
ȸ ȸ ŷڼ ħϱ
Ͽ,
Ȯ Ȱ Ÿ,
Ȱ
Ѵ.
ȸ ΰ
ϳ ϸ Ȯ ǰ ִ (츮
װͿ ٶ ȯ ƴ϶
ϰ ְ ؿԴ ̴)-ȸ
ϸ ϰ ִٰ
ϴ ̴.
̷ ӵ,
ð ,
Ӽ 籹
ް,
ü Ǿ,
ħ Ŀ ֵ ֹ
Ǿ. |
|
It could not be otherwise. The chief peculiarity which distinguished
Christ's teaching from previous religions consisted in the fact that
those who accepted it strove ever more and more to comprehend and realize
its teaching. But the Church doctrine asserted its own complete and
final comprehension and realization of it. |
ٸ .
κ
ħ ϴ ֵ Ư¡ װ
ħ ϰ ݱ
Ͽ Ѵ.
ȸ
ħ ü ϸ
ؿ Ͽ. |
|
Strange though it may seem to us who have been brought up in the
erroneous view of the Church as a Christian institution, and in contempt
for heresy, yet the fact is that only in what was called heresy was there
any true movement, that is, true Christianity, and that it only ceased to
be so when those heresies stopped short in their movement and also
petrified into the fixed forms of a church. |
üμ ȸ ߸ ð ȿ,
̴ܿ ȿ ڶ 츮鿡 װ
̻ϰ ̰,
,
̴̶ Ҹ Ϳ ,
ٽøϸ,
־,
̴ܵ ӿ ϰ
ȸ ̱⸦
. |
|
And, indeed, what is a heresy? Read all the theological works one
after another. In all of them heresy is the subject which first presents
itself for definition; since every theological work deals with the true
doctrine of Christ as distinguished from the erroneous doctrines which
surround it, that is, heresies. Yet you will not find anywhere anything
like a definition of heresy. |
,
,
̴ΰ?
ǰ
ϳ Ѿ о.
͵鿡 ̴
ü ()μ Ÿ ̴;
ǰ ,
װ
ΰ ִ ߸ ,
,
̴κ
ٷ ֱ ̴.
츮
̴ ã ̴. |
|
The treatment of this subject by the learned historian of Christianity,
E. de Pressense, in his "Histoire du Dogme" (Paris, 1869), under the
heading "Ubi Christus, ibi Ecclesia," may serve as an illustration of
the complete absence of anything like a definition of what is understood
by the word heresy. Here is what he says in his introduction (p. 3):
"Je sais que l'on nous conteste le droit de qualifier ainsi [that is,
to call heresies] les tendances qui furent si vivement combattues par les
premiers Peres. La designation meme d'heresie semble une atteinte portee
a la liberte de conscience et de pensee. Nous ne pouvons partager ce
scrupule, car il n'irait a rien moins qu'a enlever au Christianisme
tout caractere distinctif." |
ִ ȸ ִ
ǥ
(Paris, 1869) ڽ ,
нִ 簡 E. de Pressense
ٷ ,
̴̶ ܾ ؼ
صǴ () Ῡ ÷
ϴ.
̰ װ ̴(p.3):
ϹǷ ʴ ε鿡 ؼ
ͷ źεǴ [̴ܵ] ڰ ο
츮 Ǹ ȴ.
̴̶ ܾ
ü ɰ
δ.
츮 ̷ å ;
ֳϸ װ ٸ ƴ϶
Ư ̴ |
|
And though he tells us that after Constantine's time the Church did
actually abuse its power by designating those who dissented from it as
heretics and persecuting them, yet he says, when speaking of early times:
"L'eglise est une libre association; il y a tout profit a se separer
d'elle. La polemique centre 1'erreur n'a d'autres ressources que
la pensee et le sentiment. Un type doctrinal uniforme n'a pas encore ete
elabore; les divergences secondaires se produisent en Orient et en
Occident avec une entiere liberte; la theologie n'est point liee a
d'invariables formules. Si au sein de cette diversite apparait un fonds
commun de croyances, n'est-on pas en droit d'y voir non pas un systeme
formule et compose par les representants d'une autorite d' ecole, mais
la foi elle-meme dans son instinct Ie plus sur et sa manifestation la plus
spontanee? Si cette meme unanimite qui se revele dans les croyances
essentielles, se retrouve pour repousser telles ou telles tendances, ne
serons-nous pas en droit de conclure que ces tendances etaient en desacord
flagrant avec les principes fondamentaux du christianisme? Cette
presomption ne se transformerat-elle pas en certitude si nous
reconnaissons dans la doctrine universellement repoussee par 1'Eglise
les traits caracteristiques de l'une des religions du passe? Pour dire
que Ie gnosticisme ou l' ebionitisme sont les formes legitimes de la
pensee chretienne il faut dire hardiment qu'il n'y a pas de pensee
chretienne, ni de caractere specifique qui la fasse reconnaitre. Sous
pretexte de 1' elargir, on la dissout. Personne au temps de Platon
n'eut ose couvrir de son nom une doctrine qui n'eut pas fait place a
la theorie des idees; et 1'on eut excite les justes moqueries de la
Grece, en voulant faire d'Epicure ou de Zenon un disciple de
1'Academie. Reconnaissons done que s'il existe une religion ou une
doctrine qui s'appelle christianisme, elle peut avoir ses heresies." |
װ ܽźƼ ô Ŀ ȸ
ظ ϴ
̴̶ܵ Ͽ Ƿ Ͽٰ
츮 ,
,
ʱ⸦ ڸ,
״
Ѵ: ȸ ο ü̴;
κ
иν .
̳ ܿ .
ϳ ϵ
ٵ ʾҴ;
鿡 ̰ߵ
Ÿ;
Һ ſ ʴ.
̷ پ 鿡
巯ٸ,
츮 ȿ ٰ
ؼ,
,
Ƿ ǥڵ鿡 ؼ Ʋ
ȭ ü ؼ ȭ ,
װ Ȯ
ڿ ǥ ž ü ȭ Ǵ
ƴϰڴ°?
⺻ ҵ鿡
Ÿ Ȱ ǰ ġ Ư
źԿ ִٸ,
̵ ٺ
طϰ ġȴٰ г
ʰڴ°?
츮 ȸ Ϲ
źε ϳ Ư
νѴٸ ̷ Ȯ
ٲ ʰڴ°?
׳ý Ǵ ̺ǰ
µ̶ Ѵٸ,
츮
ݵ ϰ ü,
ؼ νĵ ִ Ư ̶
ؾ Ѵ.
ǥδ ,
츮 װ ħϰ ִ.
ö ô뿡 ƹ
ڽ ̸ ̷ ڸ
̷ ʾ ̴,
翬ϰԵ 븦 ö
źڶ ̷ ν ߰
̴.
ٸ Ҹ Ǵ
ִٸ,
̴ܵ鵵 ̴ٶ ν. |
|
The author's whole argument amounts to this: that every opinion which
differs from the code of dogmas we believe in at a given time, is heresy.
But of course at any given time and place men always believe in something
or other; and this belief in something, indefinite at any place, at some
time, cannot be a criterion of truth. |
ü ᱹ ̿ :
,
Ư
ð 츮 ϴ ذ ٸ ǰ,
̴̴.
Ư ð ҿ
̳ ٸ ϰ ,
,
ð Ȯġ Ϳ
. |
|
It all amounts to this: since ubi Christus ibi Ecclesia, then Christus
is where we are. |
ᱹ Ͱȴ:
ִ
ȸ ,
츮 ִ ִ. |
|
Every so-called heresy, regarding, as it does, its own creed as the
truth, can just as easily find in Church history a series of illustrations
of its own creed, can use all Pres-sense's arguments on its own behalf,
and can call its own creed the one truly Christian creed. And that is just
what all heresies do and have always done. |
̴,
û ϵ,
ڽ
鼭,
ȸ 翡
Ϸ ڽ ã
,
ڽ Ͽ
̿ ְ,
ڽ ϳ
θ.
װ ٷ
̴ܵ ϰ Ͽ ̴. |
|
The only definition of heresy (the word airesi", means a
part) is this: the name given by a body of men to any opinion which
rejects a part of the Creed professed by that body. The more frequent
meaning, more often ascribed to the word heresy, is-that of an opinion
which rejects the Church doctrine founded and supported by the temporal
authorities. |
̴(airesi"
κ ǹѴ) Ǵ ̷ϴ:
ӿ
Ͽ,
ڽ κ źϴ
ǰ߿,
־ ̸̴.
ǹ,
̴̶ ܾ ־ ǹ̴-Ӽ
籹 Ͽ ʵǰ Ǵ ȸ
źϴ ǰ ǹѴ. |
|
There is a remarkable and voluminous work, very little known,
"Unpartheyische Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie," 1729, by Gottfried
Arnold, which deals with precisely this subject, and points out all the
unlawfulness, the arbitrariness, the senselessness, and the cruelty of
using the word heretic in the sense of reprobate. This book is an attempt
to write the history of Christianity in the form of a history of heresy. |
ſ ˷ ,
ָ ϸ ִ
ǰμ, 1729 Ʈ Ƴ
߾ ȸ
̴ Ȯ
ٷ ִ ϴ Ҵٴ ǹ̷
̴̶ ܾ Կ ־,
ҹ,
,
ǹ,
Ѵ.
å
̴ ·μ 縦 Ϸ
õ̴. |
|
In the introduction the author propounds a series of questions: (1) Of
those who make heretics; (2) Of those whom they made heretics; (3) Of
heretical subjects themselves; (4) Of the method of making heretics; and
(5) Of the object and result of making heretics. |
п ڴ Ϸ Ѵ: (1)
̴ܵ 鿡 Ͽ; (2)
̴ܵ
鿡 Ͽ; (3)
̴ 鼺 ü
Ͽ; (4)
̴ܵ Ͽ;
(5)
̴ܵ . |
|
On each of these points he propounds ten more questions, the answers
to which he gives later on from the works of well-known theologians. But
he leaves the reader to draw for himself the principal conclusion from the
expositions in the whole book. As examples of these questions, in which
the answers are to some extent included also, I will quote the following.
Under the 4th head, of the manner in which heretics are made, he says, in
one of the questions (in the 7th): |
̷ Ͽ ״ ̻
Ѵ,
ڿ
ڵ ǰκ ´.
״ ڽ ſ ڵ鿡 ü å κ
⺻ .
̷
μ,
ش ԵǾ
,
ο ̴.
°
ǥ Ʒ,
̴ܵ 鿡 Ͽ,
״ (ϰ°)
ϳ Ѵ: |
|
"Does not all history show that the greatest makers of heretics and
masters of that craft were just these wise men, from whom the Father hid
his secrets, that is, the hypocrites, the Pharisees, and lawyers, men
utterly godless and perverted (Question 20-21)? And in the corrupt times
of Christianity were not these very men cast out, denounced by the
hypocrites and envious, who were endowed by God with great gifts and who
would in the days of pure Christianity have been held in high honor?
And, on the other hand, would not the men who, in the decline of
Christianity raised themselves above all, and regarded themselves as the
teachers of the purest Christianity, would not these very men, in the
times of the apostles and disciples of Christ, have been regarded as the
most shameless heretics and anti-Christians?" |
پ ̴
ε ٷ ̵ ο ڵ̸,
ƹ ̵-
ٽ ϸ,
ڵ,
ĸε,
,
ϳԵ ְ -κ
( 20-21) 簡
ʴ°?
ϳ Ŀٶ
ο,
ô뿡
ڸ ٷ ,
е ô뿡
ڵ ñϴ ڵ鿡 Ͽ Ѱܳ
ʾҴ?
,
ٸ ,
ڽŵ ٵ ,
̶ ,
ٷ
絵 ڵ ô뿡 ġ
̴ڵ̸
ʾҴ? |
|
He expounds, among other things in these questions, the theory that any
verbal expression of faith, such as was demanded by the Church, and the
departure from which was reckoned as heresy, could never fully cover the
exact religious ideas of a believer, and that therefore the demand for an
expression of faith in certain words was ever productive of heresy, and
he says, in Question 21: |
״,
ٸ ͵ ̿,
ȸκ 䱸Ǵ ٿ ,
žӿ
ǥ,
κ ־ ̴
Ż,
ڵ
,
Ƿ Ư μ ž ǥ
䱸 ̴ ϰ ȴٰ ϴ
̷ Ѵ,
21 Ѵ: |
|
"And if heavenly things and thoughts present themselves to a man's
mind as so great and so profound that he does not find corresponding words
to express them, ought one to call him a heretic, because he cannot
express his idea with perfect exactness?" And in Question 33: |
ϴ
ʹ ϰ ɿϿ װ͵ ǥ
ã Ѵٸ,
츮 װ ڽ
Ϻ Ȯ ǥ ٰ Ͽ
̴̶ ҷ ϴ°?
33: |
|
"And is not the fact that there was no heresy in the earliest days
due to the fact that the Christians did not judge one another by verbal
expressions, but by deed and by heart, since they had perfect liberty to
express their ideas without the dread of being called heretics; was it not
the easiest and most ordinary ecclesiastical proceeding, if the clergy
wanted to get rid of or to ruin anyone, for them to cast suspicion on the
person's belief, and to throw a cloak of heresy upon him, and by this
means to procure his condemnation and removal? |
ʱ ε ǥ ƴ϶
θ ǴϿ,
̴ڵ Ҹ
η ǥ Ϻ
̴ ٴ´
ƴϴ;
ڰ ϰų ϱ⸦
Ѵٸ,
Ȥ ,
̴ ,
̷
Ÿ ϴ
ȸ ƴϴ? |
|
"True though it may be that there were sins and errors among the
so-called heretics, it is no less true and evident," he says farther on,
"from the innumerable examples quoted here (i. e., in the
history of the Church and of heresy), that there was not a single sincere
and conscientious man of any importance whom the Churchmen would not from
envy or other causes have ruined." |
״ ߿ ̾߱ Ѵ, ,
̴ڵ
̿ ˾ǵ ־ ϼ
ְ,
ϰ ߿ ι ߿
ڵ ñ Ǵ ٸ μ Ű
ٴ ,
ο (,
ȸ ̴ 翡)
Ǵ
ʰ ϸ иϴ. |
|
Thus, almost two hundred years ago, the real meaning of heresy was
understood. And notwithstanding that, the same conception of it has gone
on existing up to now. And it cannot fail to exist so long as the
conception of a church exists. Heresy is the obverse side of the Church.
Wherever there is a church, there must be the conception of heresy. A
church is a body of men who assert that they are in possession of
infallible truth. Heresy is the opinion of the men who do not admit the
infallibility of the Church's truth. |
̷ ؼ,
̹ ,
̴
ǹ̴ صǾ.
Կ ұϰ,
װͿ Ȱ ݱ Ͽ Դ.
ȸ ϴ װ
.
̴ ȸ ٸ ̴.
ȸ
ִ ,
ݵ ̴ ִ.
ȸ
ڽŵ ϰ ִٰ
ϴ ̴.
̴ ȸ
ʴ ǰ̴. |
|
Heresy makes its appearance in the Church. It is the effort to break
through the petrified authority of the Church. All effort after a living
comprehension of the doctrine has been made by heretics. Tertullian,
Origen, Augustine, Luther, Huss, Savonarola, Helchitsky, and the rest were
heretics. It could not be otherwise. |
̴ ȸ 巯.
װ
ȭó Ǿ ȸ Ƿ ŸϷ ̴.
ظ ߱ϴ
̴ڵ鿡 Ͽ õǾ.
,
,
ƿ챸ƾ,
,
,
纸Ѷ,
ġŰ,
鵵 ̴ڵ̾.
ݴδ . |
|
The follower of Christ, whose service means an ever-growing
understanding of his teaching, and an ever-closer fulfillment of it, in
progress toward perfection, cannot, just because he is a follower of
Christ, claim for himself or any other that he understands Christ's
teaching fully and fulfills it. Still less can he claim this for any body
of men. |
ڴ,
Ϻ
ư鼭 ħ Ӿ
ϴ ħ Ӿ
븦 ǹϴ μ,
װ
̱ ,
ڽ̳ ٸ ؼ
װ ħ װ
Ѵٰ .
״
ؼ ̰ |
|
To whatever degree of understanding and perfection the follower of
Christ may have attained, he always feels the insufficiency of his
understanding and fulfillment of it, and is always striving toward a
fuller understanding and fulfillment. And therefore, to assert of one's
self or of any body of men, that one is or they are in possession of
perfect understanding and fulfillment of Christ's word, is to renounce
the very spirit of Christ's teaching. |
ڵ
̳ ϼ Ͽ ,
״
õ ,
游
õ ؼ ϰ ִ.
Ƿ,
ڱ
ڽ̳
õ Ѵٰ,
׳ 鿡
Ͽ ϴ ,
ħ
ü ϴ ̴. |
|
Strange as it may seem, the churches as churches have always been, and
cannot but be, institutions not only alien in spirit to Christ's
teaching, but even directly antagonistic to it. With good reason Voltaire
calls the Church l'infame; with good reason have all or almost
all so-called sects of Christians recognized the Church as the scarlet
woman foretold in the Apocalypse; with good reason is the history of the
Church the history of the greatest cruelties and horrors. |
̻ϰ ,
ȸ ̾
ħ ſ ü
Ǿ Ӹ ƴ϶,
븳Ͽ
,
.
ʹ
翬 ȸ ġ θ;
ʹ
翬ϰԵ Ǵ
ĵ ȸ Ѱ÷Ͽ ˸ ڷ
;
ʹ 翬 ȸ ū
η ̴. |
|
The churches as churches are not, as many people suppose,
institutions which have Christian principles for their basis, even though
they may have strayed a little away from the straight path. The churches
as churches, as bodies which assert their own infallibility, are
institutions opposed to Christianity. There is not only nothing in common
between the churches as such and Christianity, except the name, but they
represent two principles fundamentally opposed and antagonistic to one
another. One represents pride, violence, self-assertion, stagnation, and
death; the other meekness, penitence, humility, progress, and life. |
ٸ κ ణ ߳ ߰
ϴ ȸ,
ϴ
ó,
ʷμ
ü ƴϴ.
ȸ,
ڽ
ϴ ӵ̸鼭,
ü̴.
̸ ϰ ȸμ ȸ
̿ ƹ Ӹ ƴ϶,
ο ٺ ̸ ݸϴ
ΰ ǥѴ.
ϳ ڸ,
,
,
ü ;
ٸ ϳ ,
ȸ,
,
ǥѴ. |
|
We cannot serve these two masters; we have to choose between them. |
츮 ΰ ;
츮
ݵ ߿ ؾ Ѵ. |
|
The servants of the churches of all denominations, especially of later
times, try to show themselves champions of progress in Christianity. They
make concessions, wish to correct the abuses that have slipped into the
Church, and maintain that one cannot, on account of these abuses, deny the
principle itself of a Christian church, which alone can bind all men
together in unity and be a mediator between men and God. But this is all a
mistake. Not only have the churches never bound men together in unity;
they have always been one of the principal causes of division between men,
of their hatred of one another, of wars, battles, inquisitions, massacres
of St. Bartholomew, and so on. And the churches have never served as mediators
between men and God. Such mediation is not wanted, and was directly
forbidden by Christ, who has revealed his teaching directly and
immediately to each man. But the churches set up dead forms in the place
of God, and far from revealing God, they obscure him from men's sight.
The churches, which originated from misunderstanding of Christs
teaching and have maintained this misunderstanding by their
immovability, cannot but persecute and refuse to recognize all true
understanding of Christ's words. They try to conceal this, but in vain;
for every step forward along the path pointed out for us by Christ is a
step toward their destruction. |
ĵ ȸ ,
Ư ֱ
ô뿡,
ڽŵ ȣڷ
Ÿ õߴ.
纸ϸ,
ȸ ̲
ǽ ϱ⸦ ٶ,
̷
ǽ ؼ,
츮 ȸ
ü ,
װ Բ
Ͽ ϳ ڰ
ɼ ִٰ Ѵ.
̰ ߸̴.
ȸ Ͽ Բ ;
п,
θ
,
,
,
̴ ź,
ٵθ л ֵ ̾.
ȸ ϳ ڷμ
ʾҴ.
ʿġ ʴ,
Ǿ,
ħ
.
ȸ ĵ ϳ Ͽ ,
ϳ Ÿ Ŀ,
帮 Ͽ.
ȸ,
ħ
μ Ǿ ̷ ظ
ε ϿǷ,
鿡
ǵ дϰ νϱ⸦
ź .
̰
Ѵ;
ֳϸ ؼ 츮
ư ,
̱ ̴. |
|
To hear and to read the sermons and articles in which Church writers of
later times of all denominations speak of Christian truths and virtues; to
hear or read these skillful arguments that have been elaborated during
centuries, and exhortations and professions, which sometimes seem like
sincere professions, one is ready to doubt whether the churches can be
antagonistic to Christianity. "It cannot be," one says, "that these
people who can point to such men as Chrysostom, Fenelon, Butler, and
others professing the Christian faith, were antagonistic to
Christianity." One is tempted to say, "The churches may have strayed
away from Christianity, they may be in error, but they can not be hostile
to it." But we must look to the fruit to judge the tree, as Christ
taught us. And if we see that their fruits were evil, that the results of
their activity were antagonistic to Christianity, we cannot but admit that
however good the men were-the work of that Church in which these men took
part was not Christian. The goodness and worth of these men who served the
churches was the goodness and worth of the men, and not of the
institution they served. All the good men, such as Francis of Assisi, and
Francis of Sales, our Tihon Zadonsky, Thomas a Kempis, and others, were
good men in spite of their serving an institution hostile to Christianity,
and they would have been still better if they had not been under the
influence of the error which they were serving. |
ĵ ٷ ȸ ۰ ϴ
ϴ
;
ٵ ̷ Ǹ
ǰ ,
̰͵ δ
鰰 ̰,
,
츮
ȸ ִ ǽϰ
ȴ.
츮 Ѵ, ž ϴ
ũ,
ڷ,
Ʋ,
ٸ
Ī ִ
̶ .
츮 ϰ
̴, ȸ κ ִ,
߸ ִ,
ȸ
.
츮
츮 Ƶ,
ǴϷ Ÿ
ƾѴ.
츮 Ű ,
,
ƹ ϴ- ϰ ִ ȸ
ƴ .
ȸ
̸,
ü
ƴϴ.
,
,
ƽý
ý,
ý,
츮 Ƽȥ
ڵŰ,
丶 ǽ,
ٸ
ü ұϰ
̾,
ִ
Ʒ ʾҾٸ ξ
̴. |
|
But why should we speak of the past and judge from the past, which may
have been misrepresented and misunderstood by us? The churches, with
their principles and their practice, are not a thing of the past. The
churches are before us today, and we can judge of them to some purpose by
their practical activity, their influence on men. |
츮 Ÿ ؾ ϸ ŷκ
Ǵؾ ϴ°,
װ 츮 ߸ õǰ ߸
?
ȸ,
ƴϴ.
ȸ ó տ ִ,
츮
,
鿡
Ư 鿡 Ͽ Ǵ ִ. |
|
What is the practical work of the churches today? What is their
influence upon men? What is done by the churches among us, among the
Catholics and the Protestants of all denominations-what is their
practical work? And what are the results of their practical work? |
ó ȸ ϴ ΰ?
鿡 ΰ?
츮
ȸ,
ĵ 縯 ű ȸ
Ͽ °?
۾ ΰ? |
|
The practice of our Russian so-called Orthodox Church is plain to all.
It is an enormous fact which there is no possibility of hiding and about
which there can be no disputing. |
þ ȸ ̿ ϴ.
װ ɼ ,
û ̴. |
|
What constitutes the practical work of this Russian Church, this
immense, intensely active institution, which consists of a regiment of
half a million men and costs the people tens of millions of rubles? |
þ ȸ- ϰ,
û Ȱ
üμ,
̴ ʸ Ѵ
Ǿ õ ϰ Ѵ-
Ǵ°? |
|
The practical business of the Church consists in instilling by every
conceivable means into the mass of one hundred millions of the Russian
people those extinct relics of beliefs for which there is nowadays no kind
of justification, "in which scarcely anyone now believes, and often not
even those whose duty it is to diffuse these false beliefs." To instill
into the people the formulae of Byzantine theology, of the Trinity, of the
Mother of God, of Sacraments, of Grace, and so on, extinct
conceptions, foreign to us, and having no kind of meaning for men of our
times, forms only one part of the work of the Russian Church. Another part
of its practice consists in the maintenance of idol-worship in the most
literal meaning of the word; in the veneration of holy relics, and of
icons, the offering of sacrifices to them, and the expectation of their
answers to prayer. I am not going to speak of what is preached and what is
written by clergy of scientific or liberal tendencies in the theological
journals. I am going to speak of what is actually done by the clergy
through the wide expanse of the Russian land among a people of one hundred
millions. What do they, diligently, assiduously, everywhere alike, without
intermission, teach the people? What do they demand from the people in
virtue of their (so-called) Christian faith? |
ȸ ܵ
Ͽ þ 鿡 ó ƹ
Ÿ缺 ̶ ϴ
Խ۵ ִ, װ ƹ
,
̷
ϴ ǹ ڵ鵵 ʴ´.
ƾ
,
ü,
,
ʽ,
,
,
츮 ̸,
츮
ô 鿡 ƹ ǹ̵
ԽŰ þ ȸ κ
Ѵ.
ٸ κ ܾ
ǹ ״ ;
,
װ͵鿡 ġ,
װ͵ 뿡 ִ.
鿡 Ǵ
ڵ鿡 ؼ ̳ ϵ
̴.
Ȱ þ
Ʋ 鸸 ̿
ڵ鿡 ؼ ϰ Ѵ.
鿡,
,
,
Ȱ,
ʰ ġ°?
ž ſ κ
䱸ϴ°? |
|
I will begin from the beginning with the birth of a child. At the birth
of a child they teach them that they must recite a prayer over the child
and mother to purify them, as though without this prayer the mother of a
newborn child were unclean. To do this the priest holds the child in his
arms before the images of the saints (called by the people plainly gods)
and reads words of exorcizing power, and this purifies the mother. Then it
is suggested to the parents, and even exacted of them, under fear of
punishment for non-fulfillment, that the child must be baptized; that
is, be dipped by the priest three times into the water, while certain
words, understood by no one, are read aloud, and certain actions, still
less understood, are performed; various parts of the body are rubbed with
oil, and the hair is cut, while the sponsors blow and spit at an imaginary
devil. All this is necessary to purify the child and to make him a
Christian. Then it is instilled into the parents that they ought to
administer the sacrament to the child, that is, give him, in the guise of
bread and wine, a portion of Christ's body to eat, as a result of which
the child receives the grace of God within it, and so on. Then it is
suggested that the child as it grows up must be taught to pray. To pray
means to place himself directly before the wooden boards on which are
painted the faces of Christ, the Mother of God, and the saints, to bow his
head and his whole body, and to touch his forehead, his shoulders and his
stomach with his right hand, holding his fingers in a certain position,
and to utter some words of Slavonic, the most usual of which as taught to
all children are: Mother of God, virgin, rejoice thee, etc., etc. |
Բ ó
̴.
̰ ,
̿ Ӵϸ
ȭϱ Ͽ ݵ οѴ,
ġ
¾ Ӵϴ
ó.
ϱ Ͽ ڵ (
ϰ ŵ̶ θ) տ ̸
ǰ Ȱ Ƿ ѾƳ д´,
̰ Ӵϸ ȭ ش.
ó ָ鼭
̰ ݵ ʸ ƾ Ѵٰ ϸ鼭
θ鿡 ǰǸ,
κ 䱸DZ
ϴµ,
,
Ͽ ,
ÿ
,
ƹ ũ Ҹ
,
;
ü κе ⸧ ,
Ӹī ߶,
ÿ ȣڵ
Ҿ ´.
̸ ȭϰ
µ ʿϴ.
̿ ʽ ǽϵ,
,
ַ 䳻 Եϸ,
ؼ ̴ ȿ ִ ϳ
ްԵȴٰ ԹްԵȴ.
̴ ڶ鼭
ݵ ϴ 쵵 ǰ ´.
Ѵٴ ,
,
ڵ
տ ,
Ӹ
ü ̰,
̸,
,
踦
հ Բ ,
հ Ư
߾Ÿ,
̵鿡 :
ƿ
ſ մϴ,
,
. |
|
|
|
|
Then it is instilled into the child as it is brought up that at the
sight of any church or icon he must repeat the same action-i.e.,
cross himself. Then it is instilled into him that on holidays (holidays
are the days on which Christ was born, though no one knows when that was,
on which he was circumcised, on which the Mother of God died, on which the
cross was carried in procession, on which icons have been set up, on which
a lunatic saw a vision, and so on)-on holidays he must dress himself in
his best clothes and go to church, and must buy candles and place them
there before the images of the saints. Then he must give offerings and
prayers for the dead, and little loaves to be cut up into three-cornered
pieces, and must pray many times for the health and prosperity of the Tzar
and the bishops, and for himself and his own affairs, and then kiss the
cross and the hand of the priest. |
̰ Ű鼭 ȸ
״ Ȱ ݺؾѴ-,
ȣ
Ѵٴ Թ´.
ԵǴ ϵ (ϵ
¾,
ƹ װ ,
װ ҷʸ ,
ư ,
Ӿ
ڰ ,
,
ģ
ȯ Ұ,
)- Ǹ ״
ȸ Ѵ,
ʸ 缭 տ
ƾ Ѵ.
״ ϰ
ڵ ؾѴ,
ﰢ ڸ,
ǰ,
Ȳ ֱ
ؼ,
ڽŰ ڽ ϵ ؼ
Ѵ,
ڰ տ
ԸѴ. |
|
Besides these observances, it is instilled into him that at least once
a year he must confess. To confess means to go to the church and to tell
the priest his sins, on the theory that this informing a stranger of his
sins completely purifies him from them. And after that he must eat with a
little spoon a morsel of bread with wine, which will purify him still
more. Next it is instilled into him that if a man and woman want their
physical union to be sanctified they must go to church, put on metal
crowns, drink certain potions, walk three times round a table to the sound
of singing, and that then the physical union of a man and woman becomes
sacred and altogether different from all other such unions. |
̷ ǽĵ ,
ϳ ѹ
Ͽ Ѵٰ Թ´.
Ѵٴ
ȸ ڽ ˸ ϴ ̸,
̷ Ÿο ڽ ˸ ˸ν
κ ڽ ȭŲٴ ̷̴.
״ ֿ
Ծ Ѵ,
̴ ȭŰ
̴.
ڿ ڰ ü
Ѵٸ ݵ ȸ ݼ
հ ø,
뷡Ҹ ߾
̺ ȴ´,
ڿ
ü Ǹ ̷ ٸ
հ ٸٴ Թ´. |
|
Further it is instilled into him in his life that he must observe the
following rules: not to eat butter or milk on certain days, and on certain
other days to sing Te Deums and requiems for the dead, on holidays to
entertain the priest and give him money, and several times in the year to
bring the icons from the church, and to carry them slung on his shoulders
through the fields and houses. It is instilled into him that on his
death-bed a man must not fail to eat bread and wine with a spoon, and that
it will be still better if he has time to be rubbed with sacred oil. This
will guarantee his welfare in the future life. After his death it is
instilled into his relatives that it is a good thing for the salvation of
the dead man to place a printed paper of prayers in his hands; it is a
good thing further to read aloud a certain book over the dead body, and to
pronounce the dead man's name in church at a certain time. All this is
regarded as faith obligatory on everyone. |
ư ԽŲ.
״ ݵ
Ģ ؼؾ Ѵ:
ͳ
,
ٸ ڸ ؼ
Ӱ ҷ,
Ͽ
ڰϰ ־,
ϳ
ȸ ,
װ͵ Ű
ǰ ̵ .
ÿ ݵ
ȵǸ,
ð
ִٸ ⸧ ξ
ٰ ԽŲ.
̰ ̷ ູ
̴.
ڿ
Ͽ μ տ δ
ٰ ԽŲ;
ư å
ūҸ оָ,
Ư ð
ȸ ̸ Ÿϴ ٰ
ԽŲ.
鿡 ǹ
ž . |
|
But if anyone wants to take particular care of his soul, then according
to this faith he is instructed that the greatest security of the
salvation of the soul in the world is attained by offering money to the
churches and monasteries, and engaging the holy men by this means to pray
for him. Entering monasteries too, and kissing relics and miraculous
icons, are further means of salvation for the soul. According to this
faith icons and relics communicate a special sanctity, power, and grace,
and even proximity to these objects, touching them, kissing them, putting
candles before them, crawling under them while they are being carried
along, are all efficacious for salvation, as well as Te Deums repeated
before these holy things. |
ȥ Ư ǰ
Ѵٸ,
žӿ ȥ
ȸ ϸ,
̷
ڵ ϰ μ Ͽ
ٰ ħ ´.
,
鿡 Ըߴ ͵ ȥ
̴.
žӿ ϸ
Ư ż,
Ǵ ϸ,
̷ ü鿡 ϰų,
װ͵
,
Ԑ ϰ,
װ͵ տ к
,
װ͵
ȿ ,
Ӹ ƴ϶ ̷
͵ տ ݺȴ. |
|
So this, and nothing else, is the faith called Orthodox, that is the
actual faith which, under the guise of Christianity, has been with all
the forces of the Church, and is now with especial zeal, instilled into
the people. |
ϹǷ ̰,
ٸ ͵ ,
ȸ ž̴,
װ Ͽ
ȸ Բ ־ ž̴,
Ư μ,
鿡 Խ
ش. |
|
And let no one say that the Orthodox teachers place the essential part
of their teaching in something else, and that all these are only ancient
forms, which it is not thought necessary to do away with. That is false.
This, and nothing but this, is the faith taught through the whole of
Russia by the whole of the Russian clergy, and of late years with especial
zeal. There is nothing else taught. Something different may be talked of
and written of in the capitals; but among the hundred millions of the
people this is what is done, this is what is taught, and nothing more.
Churchmen may talk of something else, but this is what they teach by
every means in their power. |
ȸ ħ κ
ٸ Ϳ дٰų,
͵ ص
ʿ䰡 ִٰ Ǵ ̶
ƹ .
װ ̴.
̰,
̰,
þ ü ڵ þ
ü Ʋ,
ֱ ⵿ Ư μ
ġ ž̴.
ۿ ġ .
뵵ÿ ΰ ٸ ̾߱ ϰ
;
߿ ̰
̸,
̰ ̸,
̻
.
ڵ ٸ ,
̰
ġ ̴. |
|
All this, and the worship of relics and of icons, has been introduced
into works of theology and into the catechisms. Thus they teach it to the
people in theory and in practice, using every resource of authority,
solemnity, pomp, and violence to impress them. They compel the people, by
overawing them, to believe in this, and jealously guard this faith from
any attempt to free the people from these barbarous superstitions. |
,
,
ǰ ȿ ԵǾ.
ؼ װ ̷ 鿡
ġ,
Ƿ,
,
ڿ Ͽ 鿡 ɾַ Ѵ.
鿡
ϸ鼭,
鿡 ̰ ϵ
ϸ,
ٽ 鼭 ̷ ߸
̽ŵκ Ӱ Ϸ
õκ ž Ų. |
|
As I said when I published my book, Christ's teaching and his very
words about non-resistance to evil were for many years a subject for
ridicule and low jesting in my eyes, and Churchmen, far from opposing it,
even encouraged this scoffing at sacred things. But try the experiment
of saying a disrespectful word about a hideous idol which is carried
sacrilegiously about Moscow by drunken men under the name of the icon of
the Iversky virgin, and you will raise a groan of indignation from these
same Churchmen. All that they preach is an external observance of the
rites of idolatry. And let it not be said that the one does not hinder the
other, that "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
undone." "All, therefore, whatsoever they bid you observe, that
observe and do; but do!, not ye after their works: for they say, and do
not" (Matt. xxiii. 23, 3). |
Ͽ ߵ,
ǿ
ħ
ü տ հ
Ǿ,
ڵ,
װ
Ŀ,
͵鿡
߰.
̹Ű ó ̸ Ʒ
ũٿ ż ٴϴ
Ͽ Ұ潺 ϴ غ,
̵ Ȱ ڵ г븦
̴.
ϴ ͵
ǽ ؼ̴.
ó ,
,
̰ θ ʴ´, ̰͵ ϰ
͵ ƾ ϶. Ƿ
̵ ϴ ٴ ϰ Ű
ϴ ϰ ġ
ƴѴ(º 23
23, 3) |
|
This was spoken of the Pharisees, who fulfilled all the external
observances prescribed by the law, and therefore the words "whatsoever
they bid you observe, that observe and do," refer to works of mercy and
goodness, and the words "do not ye after their works, for they say and
do not," refer to their observance of ceremonies and their neglect of
good works, and have exactly the opposite meaning to that which the
Churchmen try to give to the passage, interpreting it as an injunction to
observe ceremonies. External observances and the service of truth and
goodness are for the most part difficult to combine; the one excludes
the other. So it was with the Pharisees, so it is now with Church
Christians. |
̰ ٸε鿡 ̾,
óǾ ִ ǽĵ
Ͽ,
Ƿ ̵ ϴ
ٴ ϰ
ں
Ű, ϴ
ϰ ġ ƴѴ
ǽ
ؼ Ű,
ڵ װ ǽ ؼ϶ ǰ
ؼϸ鼭 ο Ͱ Ȯϰ
ݴǴ ǹ̸ .
ǽĵ
ü ϱ ƴ;
ϳ
ôѴ.
ٸε ó,
ȸ
ε ϰ ִ. |
|
If a man can be saved by the redemption, by sacraments, and by prayer,
then he does not need good works. |
,
,
ʽ,
μ
ִٸ,
״ ʿ䰡 . |
|
The Sermon on the Mount, or the Creed. One cannot believe in both. And
Churchmen have chosen the latter. The Creed is taught and is read as a
prayer in the churches, but the Sermon on the Mount is excluded even from
the Gospel passages read in the churches, so that the congregation never
hears it in church, except on those days when the whole of the Gospel is
read. Indeed, it could not be otherwise. People who believe in a wicked
and senseless God-who has cursed the human race and devoted his own Son to
sacrifice, and a part of mankind to eternal torment -cannot believe in the
God of love. The man who believes in a God, in a Christ coming again in
glory to judge and to punish the quick and the dead, cannot believe in the
Christ who bade us turn the left cheek, judge not, forgive those that
wrong us, and love our enemies. The man who believes in the inspiration of
the Old Testament and the sacred character of David, who commanded on his
deathbed the murder of an old man who had cursed him, and whom he could
not kill himself because he was bound by an oath to him, and the similar
atrocities of which the Old Testament is full, cannot believe in the holy
love of Christ. The man who believes in the Church's doctrine of the
compatibility of warfare and capital punishment with Christianity cannot
believe in the brotherhood of all men. |
ΰ ƴϸ 絵 Ű()ΰ.
츮
ΰ ÿ .
ڵ
ڸ ߴ.
Ű ȸ鿡 μ
,
ȸ鿡 鿡 ܵȴ,
ü ϰ
ȸ ȸ װ Ѵ.
,
ݴ .
ϰ ǹ̾
ϳ ϴ -״ η
,
ڱ ڽ Ƶ ,
η
Ϻθ 뿡 óϰ Ͽ- ϳ
.
ϳ ,
ڸ ٽÿͼ ڿ ڸ Ϸ
̶ ϴ 츮
ϰ,
,
츮 ϰ
ϴ ڸ 뼭ϰ,
϶ ϴ
.
༺ ,
ż - ڽ ÿ
̶ Ͽ,
ڽ
ͼ ſ ־ ̾-,
༺ ִ
ϴ .
ϴ ȸ
ϴ ָ . |
|
And what is most important of all-the man who believes in salvation
through faith in the redemption or the sacraments, cannot devote all his
powers to realizing Christ's moral teaching in his life. |
ٵ ߿ -()̳
ʽĵ鿡 ž ϴ
ڽ ħ ݴµ
ڽ . |
|
The man who has been instructed by the Church in the profane doctrine
that a man cannot be saved by his own Dowers, but that there is another
means of salvation, will infallibly rely upon this means and not on his
own powers, which, they assure him, it is sinful to trust in. |
ڱ ڽ ,
ٸ
ܵ ִٴ ż
ȸ Ͽ ħ ,
Ʋ ̷
ܿ ̰,
ڱ ڽ
̸,
װ ϴ ˾̶ ȮŽ
ش. |
|
The teaching of every Church, with its redemption and sacraments,
excludes the teaching of Christ; most of all the teaching of the Orthodox
Church with its idolatrous observances. |
ȸ,
Ӱ ʸ ,
ħ Ѵ;
ȸ ħ
κ ǽĵ ִ. |
|
"But the people have always believed of their own accord as they
believe now," will be said in answer to this. "The whole history of
the Russian people proves it. One cannot deprive the people of their
traditions." This statement, too, is misleading. The people did
certainly at one time believe in something like what the Church believes
in now, though it was far from being the same thing. In spite of their
superstitious regard for icons, house-spirits, relics, and festivals with
wreaths of birch leaves, there has still always been in the people a
profound moral and living understanding of Christianity, which there has
never been in the Church as a whole, and which is only met with in its
best representatives. But the people, notwithstanding all the prejudices
instilled into them by the government and the Church, have in their best
representatives long outgrown that crude stage of understanding, a fact
which is proved by the springing up everywhere of the rationalist sects
with which Russia is swarming to-day, and on which Churchmen are now
carrying on an ineffectual warfare. The people are advancing to a
consciousness of the moral, living side of Christianity. And then the
Church comes forward, not borrowing from the people, but zealously
instilling into them the petrified formalities of an extinct paganism, and
striving to thrust them back again into the darkness from which they are
emerging with such effort. |
̰Ϳ , ,
ϴ ó,
Ͼ.
̴. þ ü 簡 װ
Ѵ.
鿡Լ
.
ظ ̴.
,
װ Ȱ ƴ,
ſ
ȸ ϴ Ͱ Ͼ.
,
ŵ,
,
۳ ȭȯ 鿡
̽ ұϰ,
ȿ
ɿ ִ
־,
װ üμ ȸ
װ پ
ǥڵ鿡Ը ִ.
ο ȸ 鿡
ԽŲ ߵ鿡 ұϰ,
ǥڵ
ȿ ġ ¸
,
̴ ó þƿ ո İ
ϰ Ǵ ̸,
̿
Ͽ ȸ ο ϰ ִ.
,
鿡
ǽ ϰ ִ.
ȸ,
κ ϸ鼭 ƴ϶ Ͽ
̱ ó Ǹ 鿡
Խð,
ִ ٽ о ־鼭
ư. |
|
"We teach the people nothing new, nothing but what they believe, only
in a more perfect form," say the Churchmen. This is just what the man
did who tied up the full-grown chicken and thrust it back into the shell
it had come out of. |
츮 鿡 ο ġ
ϴ ݴ ·
ģ.,
ڵ Ѵ.
̰ ٷ ڶ
Ƹ ٽ װ о
̴. |
|
I have often been irritated, though it would be comic if the
consequences were not so awful, by observing how men shut one another in a
delusion and cannot get out of this magic circle. |
θ ӿ ΰ
ϴ ,
ʴٸ ,
¥, |
|
The first question, the first doubt of a Russian who is beginning to
think, is a question about the icons, and still more the miraculous
relics: Is it true that they are genuine, and that miracles are worked
through them? Hundreds of thousands of men put this question to
themselves, and their principal difficulty in answering it is the fact
that bishops, metropolitans, and all men in positions of authority kiss
the relics and wonder-working icons. Ask the bishops and men in positions
of authority why they do so, and they will say they do it for the sake of
the people, while the people kiss them because the bishops and men in
authority do so. |
ù° ǹ,
ϱ ϴ þ ù°
Ȥ ,
鿡 ǹ̴,
ξ
Ű ̴:
װ͵ ̰,
װ͵ Ͽ Ͼ ٴ
ϱ?
ǹ ο
Ѵ,
װͿ ϴ ֵ
ֱ,
ֱ,
Ƿ ִ
Ű 鿡
Ű Ѵٴ ̴.
ֱ Ƿ ġ ִ
鿡 ϴ ,
Ͽ Ѵٰ
̴,
ֱ Ƿڵ
ϹǷ װ͵鿡 ŰѴ. |
|
In spite of all the external varnish of modernity, learning, and
spirituality which the members of the Church begin nowadays to assume in
their works, their articles, their theological journals, and their
sermons, the practical work of the Russian Church consists of nothing more
than keeping the people in their present condition of coarse and savage
idolatry, and worse still, strengthening and diffusing superstition and
religious ignorance, and suppressing that living understanding of
Christianity which exists in the people side by side with idolatry. |
ó ȸ ۾鿡 ϱ
ϴ ȭ,
,
ġ忡
ұϰ,
,
,
,
þ ȸ ۾
ĥ ߸ ¿
ٵ δµ ,
Ѱ,
̽Ű
ȭŰ ϸ,
ȿ ϴ ִ
ϴµ ִ. |
|
I remember once being present in the monks' bookshop of the Optchy
Hermitage while an old peasant was choosing books for his grandson, who
could read. A monk pressed on him accounts of relics, holidays, miraculous
icons, a psalter, etc. I asked the old man, "Has he the Gospel?"
"No." "Give him the Gospel in Russian," I said to the monk.
"That will not do for him," answered the monk. There you have an
epitome of the work of our Church. |
ġ Ÿ
־ ϴµ,
,
̸ ΰ
ƴ ڿ å ־.
簡
,
ϵ,
,
,
Ͽ.
ο , ڰ
ּ? ƴϿ. þ
ֽÿ.
翡 ߴ. װ
︮ ̿,
簡 ߴ.
츮ȸ ּ. |
|
But this is only in barbarous Russia, the European and American reader
will observe. And such an observation is just, but only so far as it
refers to the government, which aids the Church in its task of
stultification and corruption in Russia. |
̰ ߸ þƿ
̾߱ ̱ ڵ ˰̴.
ش ϴ,
װ θ
̸,
δ þƿ ȭ
ӹ ȸ ִ. |
|
It is true that there is nowhere in Europe a government so despotic and
so closely allied with the ruling Church. And therefore the share of the
temporal power in the corruption of the people is greatest in Russia.
But it is untrue that the Russian Church in its influence on the people is
in any respect different from any other church. |
ΰ Ⱦϰ
ϰ ȸ ٴ
̴.
Ƿ Ÿ
־ Ӽ Ƿ þƿ ũ.
þ ȸ 鿡 Կ
鿡 ٸ ȸ ٸٴ
ƴϴ. |
|
The churches are everywhere the same, and if the Catholic, the
Anglican, or the Lutheran Church has not at hand a government as compliant
as the Russian, it is not due to any indisposition to profit by such a
government. |
ȸ ,
ī縯,
ȸ,
Ǵ ͱȸ ̿ þ ó
а θ ʴٸ,
װ
ΰ Ϳ ƴϴ. |
|
The Church as a church, whatever it may be-Catholic, Anglican,
Lutheran, Presbyterian-every church, in so far as it is a church, cannot
but strive for the same object as the Russian Church. That object is to
conceal the real meaning of Christ's teaching and to replace it by their
own, which lays no obligation on them, excludes the possibility of
understanding the true-teaching of Christ, and what is the chief
consideration, justifies the existence of priests supported at the
people's expense. |
ȸμ ȸ,
װ ̴ -ī縯,
ȸ,
ͱȸ,
α- ȸ,
װ
ȸ ,
þ ȸ Ȱ
.
ħ ǹ̸ ܼ,
ڽ
üϴµ,
װ 鿡 ƹ ǹ ΰ
,
ħ
ɼ ϴ ̸,
߿ ǹ̴,
μ ħǴ 縦
ȭϴ ̴. |
|
What else has Catholicism done, what else is it doing in its
prohibition of reading the Gospel, and in its demand for unreasoning
submission to Church authorities and to an infallible Pope? Is the
religion of Catholicism any other than that of the Russian Church? There
is the same external ritual, the same relics, miracles, and wonder-working
images of Notre Dame, and the same processions; the same loftily vague
discussions of Christianity in books and sermons, and when it comes to
practice, the same supporting of the present idolatry. And is not the
same thing done in Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and every denomination of
Protestantism which has been formed into a church? There is the same duty
laid on their congregations to believe in the dogmas expressed in the
fourth century, which have lost all meaning for men of our times, and the
same duty of idolatrous worship, if not of relics and icons, then of the
Sabbath Day and the letter of the Bible. There is always the same activity
directed to concealing the real duties of Christianity, and to putting in
their place an external respectability and cant, as it is so well
described by the English, who are peculiarly oppressed by it. In
Protestantism this tendency is specially remarkable because it has not the
excuse of antiquity. And does not exactly the same thing show itself even
in contemporary revivalism-the revived Calvinism and Evangelicalism, to
which the Salvation Army owes its origin? |
ī縯 ܿ Ͽ°,
ϰ ν,
ȸ Ƿµ
Ȳ 䱸ν,
ܿ
ϰ ִ°?
ī縯̶ þ
ȸ ʹ ٸ ΰ?
װ Ȱ
ǽ,
Ȱ ,
,
Ű
Ʋ ,
Ȱ ȸ ĵ ִ;
å Ȱ ϸ ȣ
е ,
־ Ȱ
踦 Ѵ.
ȸ,
ͱȸ,
ȸ ű
ĵ鿡 Ȱ ʴ°?
ȸ 츮 ô 鿡 ǹ̸ 4
ǥ Ͼ ϴ Ȱ ǹ ΰǰ,
̳ ƴ϶,
,
Ƚ,
ѵ鿡 Ȱ ǹ ΰѴ.
ǹ ,
ſ
蹰 ٲٷ Ȱ
,
װ Ư Ͽ й
ε鿡 ؼ ȴ.
ű ̷
Ư ε巯 ֳϸ װ ̶
̴.
ô -
Į ,
⼭
Ǿ- Ȱ ü
ʴ°? |
|
|
|
|
Uniform is the attitude of all the churches to the teaching of
Christ, whose name they assume for their own advantage. |
ħ ȸ µ
Ѱᰰ,
ڽ Ͽ
̸ ϰ ִ. |
|
The inconsistency of all church forms of religion with the teaching of
Christ is, of course, the reason why special efforts are necessary to
conceal this inconsistency from people. Truly, we need only imagine
ourselves in the position of any grown-up man, not necessarily educated,
even the simplest man of the present day, who has picked up the ideas that
are everywhere in the air nowadays of geology, physics, chemistry,
cosmography, or history, when he, for the first time, consciously compares
them with the articles of belief instilled into him in childhood, and maintained
by the churches-that God created the world in six days, and light before
the sun; that Noah shut up all the animals in his ark, and so on; that
Jesus is also God the Son, who created all before time was; that this God
came down upon earth to atone for Adam's sin; that he rose again,
ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father, and
will come in the clouds to judge the world, and so on. All these
propositions, elaborated by men of the fourth century, had a certain
meaning for men of that time, but for men of to-day they have no meaning
whatever. Men of the present day can repeat these words with their lips,
but believe them they cannot. For such sentences as that God lives in
heaven, that the heavens opened and a voice from somewhere said something,
that Christ rose again, and ascended somewhere in heaven, and again will
come from somewhere on the clouds, and so on, have no meaning for us. |
ħ ȸ
µ ġ,
,
̷ ġ
κ Ͽ Ư µ
ʿѰ ̴.
,
츮 ,
ʼ ʾҾ,
,
ô ܼ ġ,
ڽŵ ϸ ̴,
״
ǰ ִ ,
,
ȭ,
õ,
Ǵ 翡 ,
鼭 ״
ó ǽ ̵ װ
ԵǾ ȸ鿡 ؼ ӵǾ
žӰ() -ϳ
ϸ âϿ,
غ
âϿ;
ƴ ֿ
ξ,
;
ϳ̸ Ƶ̴,
״
ð ϱ âϿ;
ϳ ƴ ˸ Ϸ Դ;
״ Ͼ,
ϴ÷ ö,
ƹ ɾ ִٰ Ÿ
Ϸ ð̴,
.
, 4
鿡 Ͽ ٵ ,
ô
鿡Դ Ư ǹ̰ ־,
ô
鿡Դ ü ƹ ǹ̵ .
ô
Լμ ݺ
,
װ͵ .
ֳϸ ϳ
ϴÿ ,
ϴ Ҹ
ߴ,
ٽ Ͼ,
ϴ ö,
ٽ
κ ̴,
츮 ƹ ǹ̰ . |
|
A man who regarded the heavens as a solid, finite vault could believe
or disbelieve that God created the heavens, that the heavens opened, that
Christ ascended into heaven, but for us all these phrases have no sense
whatever. Men of the present can only believe, as indeed they do, that
they ought to believe in this; but believe it they cannot, because it has
no meaning for them. |
ϴ ܴϸ õ
ϳ ϴ ,
ϴ Ȱ,
ϴ÷ öٰ ϰų ų
ִ,
츮 ü ƹ
ǹ̰ .
ô ,
Ѵٸ,
̰ Ͼ Ѵٴ
ִ;
,
ֳϸ װ
鿡 ƹ ǹ̰ ̴. |
|
Even if all these phrases ought to be interpreted in a figurative sense
and are allegories, we know that in the first place all Churchmen are not
agreed about it, but, on the contrary, the majority stick to understanding
the Holy Scripture in its literal sense; and secondly, that these
allegorical interpretations are very varied and are not supported by any
evidence. |
¡ ǹ̷ ؼǾ
ϰ ̶,
츮 ù° ڵ
װͿ ʴ´ٴ ȴ,
,
ݴ,
κ ǹ̿
Ѵ;
ι°,
̵
ؼ ʹ پϿ ŷε ħ
ʴ´. |
|
But even if a man wants to force himself to believe in the doctrines of
the Church just as they are taught to him, the universal diffusion of
education and of the Gospel and of communication between people of
different forms of religion presents a still more insurmountable obstacle
to his doing so. |
,
ڽſ Ͱ
Ȱ,
ȸ ϰ ڽ Ѵٸ,
ٸ µ
Ȯ Կ ־
ξ غ ַ ȴ. |
|
A man of the present day need only buy a Gospel for three kopecks and
read through the plain words, admitting of no misinterpretation, that
Christ said to the Samaritan woman "that the Father seeketh not
worshipers at Jerusalem, nor in this mountain nor in that, but worshipers
in spirit and in truth," or the saying that "the Christian must not
pray like the heathen, nor for show, but secretly, that is, in his
closet," or that Christ's follower must call no man master or
father-he need only read these words to be thoroughly convinced that the
Church pastors, who call themselves teachers in opposition to Christ's
precept, and dispute among themselves, constitute no kind of authority,
and that what the Churchmen teach us is not Christianity. Less even than
that is necessary. Even if a man nowadays did continue to believe in
miracles and did not read the Gospel, mere association with people of
different forms of religion and faith, which happens so easily in these
days, compels him to doubt of the truth of his own faith. It was all very
well when a man did not see men of any other form of religion than his
own; he believed that his form of religion was the one true one. But a
thinking man has only to come into contact-as constantly happens in these
days-with people, equally good and bad, of different denominations, who
condemn each other's beliefs, to doubt of the truth of the belief he
professes himself. In these days only a man who is absolutely ignorant
or absolutely indifferent to the vital questions with which religion
deals, can remain in the faith of the Church. |
ô Ǭ ְ
ؼ о ǹǷ,
ƹ
ذ ,
,
縶
ο ߴ ƹ 췽
꿡 꿡 ŷɰ
ϴ ڸ ã϶,
Ǵ Ͻñ⸦
̹ó ؼ ȵŸ,
ֱ
ؼ ȵȴ,
߿,
ڽ
濡 ؾ Ǵ϶,
Ǵ
ڴ Ե Ǵ
ƹ ҷ ȵȴ-״
ν,
ȸ ڵ,
ݴϿ ڽŵ ̶ θ
ϴ ڵμ,
ѵ ,
ڵ 츮 ġ ƴ
ϰ ݰ ȴ.
ʿġ
ʴ.
ô ؼ ϰ
ʾҴٰ ϴ,
ٸ
ž ܼ μ,
̷
ô뿡 Ͼ Ƿ,
ڱ ڽ
žӿ Ȥ .
ڱ
ڽ Ͱ ٸ
ʾ Ҵ;
״ ڱ
Ͼ.
ô뿡
δ ϵ,
ϴ ٸ
ĵ ,
ڰ,
,
ϸ,
ᱹ ڽ
ǽϰ ȴ.
ô뿡
ٷ ġ 鿡
ϰų ȸ
žӿ ӹ ִ. |
|
What deceptions and what strenuous efforts the churches must employ to
continue, in spite of all these tendencies subversive of the faith, to
build churches, to perform masses, to preach, to teach, to convert, and,
most of all, to receive for it all immense emoluments, as do all these
priests, pastors, incumbents, superintendents, abbots, archdeacons,
bishops, and archbishops. They need special supernatural efforts. And the
churches do, with ever-increasing intensity and zeal, make such efforts.
With us in Russia, besides other means, they employ simple brute force, as
there the temporal power is willing to obey the Church. Men who refuse an
external assent to the faith, and say so openly, are either directly
punished or deprived of their rights; men who strictly keep the external
forms of religion are rewarded and given privileges. |
̷ žӿ ı 鿡
ұϰ,
,
ڵ,
ڵ,
ڵ,
,
,
ֱ,
ֱ
ϴ ó,
ȸ Ǽϸ,
̻縦
ϰ,
ϰ,
ġ,
ϰ,
,
߿,
û
,
⸸ ݷ µ
ȸ äؾ ұ?
Ư ڿ
µ ʿϴ.
ȸ,
Ӿ
ϴ μ,
µ ϰ
ִ.
þ 츮鿡 ־,
ٸ Ӹ
ƴ϶,
,
Ӽ Ƿ ȸ Ⲩ
ϷϹǷ,
鼭 Ѵ.
žӿ Ǹ źϸ,
ϴ ,
óǰų
Ǹ Ż Ѵ;
ĵ
ϰ Ű Ưǵ
־. |
|
That is how the Orthodox clergy proceed; but indeed all churches
without exception avail themselves of every means for the purpose-one of
the most important of which is what is now called hypnotism. |
װ 뱳ȸ ڰ ư ̴;
ȸ ܾ Ͽ
̿Ѵ- ߿ ߿
ϳ ̶ָ Ҹ ̴. |
|
Every art, from architecture to poetry, is brought into requisition to
work its effect on men's souls and to reduce them to a state of
stupefaction, and this effect is constantly produced. This use of
hypnotizing influence on men to bring them to a state of stupefaction is
especially apparent in the proceedings of the Salvation Army, who employ
new practices to which we are unaccustomed: trumpets, drums, songs, flags,
costumes, marching, dancing, tears, and dramatic performances. |
,
ñ,
ȥ
ȿ ϱ Ͽ ·
Ű Ͽ,
Ǹ,
ȿ
Ӿ .
·
ָ ȿ Ư ൿ鿡
Ư Ÿµ,
츮 ͼ
ο ̿Ѵ:
Ʈ,
뷡,
,
,
,
,
,
. |
|
But this only displeases us because these are new practices. Were not
the old practices in churches essentially the same, with their special
lighting, gold, splendor, candles, choirs, organ, bells, vestments,
intoning, etc.? |
̰ 츮 ϰ Ѵ ֳϸ
̰͵ ο ̱ ̴.
ȸ
ٺ ʴ°,
Ư ,
ݻ,
,
к,
,
,
Ҹ,
,
â,
? |
|
But however powerful this hypnotic influence may be, it is not the
chief nor the most pernicious activity of the Church. The chief and most
pernicious work of the Church is that which is directed to the deception
of children-these very children of whom Christ said: "Woe to him that
offendeth one of these little ones." From the very first awakening of
the consciousness of the child they begin to deceive him, to instill into
him with the utmost solemnity what they do not themselves believe in, and
they continue to instill it into him till the deception has by habit grown
into the child's nature. They studiously deceive the child on the most
important subject in life, and when the deception has so grown into his
life that it would be difficult to uproot it, then they reveal to him the
whole world of science and reality, which cannot by any means be
reconciled with the beliefs that have been instilled into him, leaving it
to him to find his way as best he can out of these contradictions. |
ƹ ָ ϴ
,
װ ȸ ٽ Ǵ ġ
ƴϴ.
ٽ̸ ġ ȸ
̵ ⸸Կ ߾ ִٴ
̴-ٷ ̷ ̵鿡 ؼ
ߴ: ̵ ϳ ˸
ڿ ְ .
ǽ
ϱ ,
̸,
ε
ʴ ְ ԽŰ
ϸ,
⸸ ȿ ڶ
ؼ װ ԽŲ.
ϰ ߿ Ͽ
̸ ⸸Ѵ,
⸸
ڶ װ Ѹ ̱Ⱑ ư ǰ,
ü й
ش,
װ ȿ ԵǾ
ȭ ̷ ,
̷
κ ּ Ͽ ã
. |
|
If one set oneself the task of trying to confuse a man so that he could
not think clearly nor free himself from the perplexity of two opposing
theories of life which had been instilled into him from childhood, one
could not invent any means more effectual than the treatment of every
young man educated in our so-called Christian society. |
츮 ȥ Ͽ,
Խ ΰ ϴ
̷е ȥ Ȯϰ
ϰų,
װ Ϸ ô´ٸ,
츮 츮 ȸ
ٷ ȿ
̴. |
|
It is terrible to think what the churches do to men. But if one
imagines oneself in the position of the men who constitute the Church, we
see they could not act differently. The churches are placed in a dilemma:
the Sermon on the Mount or the Nicene Creed-the one excludes the other. If
a man sincerely believes in the Sermon on the Mount, the Nicene Creed must
inevitably lose all meaning and significance for him, and the Church and
its representatives together with it. If a man believes in the Nicene
Creed, that is, in the Church, that is, in those who call themselves its
representatives, the Sermon on the Mount becomes superfluous for him. And
therefore the churches cannot but make every possible effort to obscure
the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount, and to attract men to themselves.
It is only due to the intense zeal of the churches in this direction that
the influence of the churches has lasted hitherto. |
ȸ 鿡 ϴ ϸ ηƴ.
츮 ȸ ϴ ġ
츮 ڽ Ѵٸ,
츮 ٸ ൿ
ٴ ȴ.
ȸ ִ:
ƴϸ ɾ Ű-ڴ ڸ Ѵ.
ǵǰ ϴ´ٸ,
ɾ
ݵ ʿ ־ ǹ̿
߿伺 Ҵ´,
ȸ ǥڵ鵵
װͰ Բ ǹ̿ ߿伺 Ҵ´.
ɾ ,
,
ȸ,
θ ȸ
ǥڶ ϴ ϴ´ٸ,
־ ʿϰ ȴ.
Ƿ
ȸ ǹ̸ ȣϰ ϸ,
ڽŵ鿡Է ̷
.
ȸ ݱ ӵ
̷ ȸ
Ѵ. |
|
Let the Church stop its work of hypnotizing the masses, and deceiving
children even for the briefest interval of time, and men would begin to
understand Christ's teaching. But this understanding will be the end
of the churches and all their influence. And therefore the churches will
not for an instant relax their zeal in the business of hypnotizing
grown-up people and deceiving children. This, then, is the work of the
churches: to instill a false interpretation of Christ's teaching into
men, and to prevent a true interpretation of it for the majority of
so-called believers. |
ȸ ߵ ָŰ,
̵ ⸸ϴ
߰ ϶,
ª ð ̶,
ħ ݱ
̴.
ȸ
̴.
Ƿ ȸ
ε ָŰ ̵ ⸸ϴ
ö ̴.
ٸ,
̰ ȸ ϴ ̴:
ħ
ؼ 鿡 ԽŰ,
ټ
ϴ ؼ ħ
ؼ ̴. |
|
|
|