When I read that Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future had changed contemporary Russia, I personally was a bit skeptical. After all, any number of things could have been the driving factor for the revival of orthodoxy in Russia with the fall of communism in the 1990s certainly a large factor. So I was also a bit skeptical of Father Seraphim Rose, a polarizing figure in Orthodox circles, who has been the spiritual father and basis of many of Orthodox converts and Christians in the past few decades. Both of these things led me to avoiding the magna opus of Father Seraphim Rose. However, the truth was I wasn't ready to be confronted with the truth. I was content to attend my parish on Sunday, read my prayers as often as I can, try to digest the daily readings, and attempt to live an exemplary life that was safe within the confines of its walls that I had personally set up so that I could be "protected." However that all changed. I, like so many of my fellow converts to the faith, have finally read Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future. It has indeed changed my life.
Father Seraphim Rose begins his discussion of the various topics surrounding the Orthodox Church in modern times with his discussion on the Church vs Other Faiths. And in this aspect, I don't mean protestants or papists, but rather the Church versus Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism, etc. Father Seraphim clearly outlines from the onset that Triune Christianity is directly opposed to all other faiths. God of the Christians is not the same as the God of Islam, Krishna of Hinduism, and even though the Jews might be the posterity of Abraham, they are the not the sons of Abraham, because that would require a faith in Jesus Christ. But the proponents of this so called "unity of faith" proclaimed on page 3 of the book "...all three confess God the Father." Father retorts, that no, Orthodox Christians don't just confess God the Father, but the "Holy, Consubstantial (of the same essence), Life-giving, and UNDIVIDED Trinty." (page 3). For Father and all Christians, God is not the father of men in this world, but the Father of men in the realm of redemption. He has given us His Son, Jesus Christ, who without faith is "a great imposter" and thus we destroy our own faith by surrendering to the heretical teachings that both Jews and Muslims and any other faith that denies the divinity of Christ. From there, Father Seraphim then details the nature of these pagan gods and their diabolical actions. These actions are seen by many as modern standards which would seem harmless, even humanitarian. Unfortunately, these teachings all have the same goal...erasing Christian thought and tradition and replacing it with a nameless. impersonal god, which is man himself.
As Father Seraphim continues his book, he looks at stories and eyewitness accounts of the demonic actions of these beings. The power of the pagan gods can sometimes cause great feats and various so called "miracles" that would have any person fall into deception. His first story is that of a young woman who by the power of Christ overcame the prelest (spiritual deception) of Hinduism. Let us take the eyewitness account of this young woman and others to discover that the pagan gods do everything they can to tear us away from faith in Christ. This young woman, who by her own experience states that she worshipped, Kali, the goddess of death, discusses at length how the Swamis of India tried in earnest to show that India was the birthplace of the Christianity. They claimed that the scriptures found in the Bible were nothing more than Hinduism writings that had been carried to the Holy Land and then misinterpreted for nearly 2000 years without their "help." (page 13) Do you realize that if that's the case, that we have been deceived? That nothing can be true! God is not mocked, brothers and sisters, that is clear from the scriptures, and do you truly believe that God for 2000 years after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ would allow the Church to go into deception and to misinterpret the scriptures through the writings of the Church Fathers and Elders? I don't think so! As I spoke in a previous blog, we must test the spirits and see if they are from God or from something else. This so called misinterpretation is simply a desire to see the very essence and life of Christ reduced in the eyes of the world. Of course this took hold in America and other countries where many even today are still searching for "truth." Where truth is an opinion. Truth, dear brothers and sisters, is not an opinion--it is fact. Without holding true to what we believe and what has been handed down to us, for generations, we are no better than the church that Jesus spewed out of his mouth for being lukewarm. (Revelation 3:16).
Continuing on, as I stated earlier, she mentions that she worshipped death, Kali in India. Nothing more than a form of the devil himself, or herself in this case, as we know demons can change appearance to fit their needs. She is described as Terror on page 20, and I don't know about you, but I would not want to worship something that is called Terror, or evil. Secondly she continues to discuss how the very nature of the pagans has entered our Christian thought. This young woman of who Father Seraphim Rose writes, discusses Thomas Merton, who by his own experiences and devices was influenced by the pagan religions so far as to turn away from the faith by correlating Christianity to Zen, Buddhism, and other pagan religions. This staunch Catholic writer, was in turn himself deceived -into believing that all religions were equal. I am sorry if this offends anyone, but Christ can only be found in Christianity. No where else. On page 26-27 of the book, still within the article on the young woman, father writes about Teilhard de Chardin a Jesuit priest. This Jesuit priest also dabbled in Hinduism and came to the conclusion,"...I recognize that, following the example of the incarnate God revealed to me by the Catholic faith, I can be saved only by becoming one with the universe." Dear brothers and sisters, our goal as Christians is not to become "one with the universe, but one with Jesus Christ! Uniting ourselves with Him through daily practice of our faith and growing in stature and more into Christmindedness. Our salvation does not lie in some abstract universe, but in the life of Jesus Christ. Those who believe anything other than Jesus Christ can save them are deceived and I will continue to say that over and over again until it is engrained in this writing.
One of the most interesting stories takes place on page 57 of the book where he describes the arrival of Mahara-ji to the United States in 1973. Mahara-ji had been declared "God" by the people of India and he was known as the Lord of the Universe. Rennie Davis, one of the disciples was quoted in the book as saying, "He is the greatest even in history and we sleep through it...I feel like shouting in the streets. If we knew who he was we would crawl, across America, on our hands and knees, to rest our heads at his feet." This is grave error brother and sisters! Any Christian who calls himself as much must see the pagan teachings exuding from this philosophy. Over and over in the first portion of this book, Father Seraphim Rose, refutes the pagans and the nature of the pagan gods for what they truly are...demons. Much more can be said on this topic, but for now I will leave you with the prayer that we will see through the lies of those outside the Faith, and will pray for their repentance to come to a full understanding of Christ and His Church.
Amen.
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